Javed Akhtar wanted to assist Guru Dutt, become a director, but failed: ‘I came to Mumbai on October 4, he died on 10th’
- August 8, 2025
- Ultra Team
At an event marking the re-release of Guru Dutt’s films on his 100th birth anniversary, Javed Akhtar, Sudhir Mishra, Hansal Mehta, and R Balki talked about him.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest Indian filmmakers ever, it has been six decades since Guru Dutt’s death. Yet, his impact on Hindi cinema refuses to wane. The year 2025 marks 100 years of the legendary filmmaker’s birth, and it will see the re-release of some of his finest and most celebrated films. On Wednesday, celebrated filmmakers, critics, and technicians got together to celebrate Guru Dutt’s films and regaled the audience with some trivia about his life.
As part of the centenary celebrations of Dutt, some of his most iconic films are being restored and re-released in theatres this weekend. To kickstart the celebrations, a premiere of his 1957 film Pyaasa was held in Mumbai on Wednesday. The event, organised by Ultra Media and Entertainment Group, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), was preceded by a panel discussion on Guru Dutt’s cinema, which saw filmmakers Hansal Mehta, R Balki, and Sudhir Mishra being joined by lyricist Javed Akhtar and film critic and author Bhawanaa Sommaya.
Javed Akhtar recalls wanting to assist Guru Dutt
When asked when they first discovered Guru Dutt, Javed Akhtar recalled how he wanted to be the filmmaker’s assistant as a college student. “I thought after my graduation, I’ll go to the film industry and join Mr Guru Dutt for a couple of years, and then I’ll become a director. When you’re 18 years old, things are simpler and easier, so that is what I had decided. It is so unfortunate that I came to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1964, on October 4, and he passed away on October 10, so I could never ever see him,” he said.
Talking about Guru Dutt’s legacy, the veteran screenwriter and lyricist added, “We had great directors like Mehboob (Khan), Bimal Roy, but Guru Dutt was the first person who spoke through visuals. There were other directors who could give good performances, shoot at the right locations, create the right ambience in the film, and make well-written films, but talking through visuals is something that was taught to us by Guru Dutt.”
Sudhir Mishra and Hansal Mehta on Guru Dutt’s legacy
Sudhir Mishra reminisced about watching Guru Dutt’s film, Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam, six times as a teenager, with his grandmother. “I keep revisiting him. There’s nothing in my life that I’ve done that is not influenced by him, and I haven’t measured up to to him, but I’m trying to. Every film that I’ve done, every shot that I’ve taken, every scene I’ve written, and song that I’ve tried to picturise, I can’t imagine it without Guru Dutt,” the filmmaker said.
Hansal Mehta revealed that during his FTII days in Pune in the early 1990s, he created a music video that he called a “plagiarised” version of a sequence from Guru Dutt’s iconic Kaagaz Ke Phool. He candidly described his work as a “vulgar replication,” and added in jest that he is happy the negatives of that work have been destroyed so nobody can see it now.
Guru Dutt retrospective
Dutt’s family attended the event, including his granddaughters Gouri and Karuna Dutt, as well as the son of late actor Johnny Walker, Nasir, filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, and actors Akshay Oberoi and Divya Dutta.
Six of Guru Dutt’s finest films: Pyaasa (1957), Aar Paar (1954), Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), Mr & Mrs 55, (1955), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), and Baaz (1953) will be screened across India from August 8 to 14 as part of the retrospective. The restoration of these titles has been undertaken by the NFDC and the NFAI, along with Ultra Media and Entertainment Group, which holds the rights to these movies.
