Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty, who started his career with Mrinal Sen's 1976 movie Mrigayaa, has been a part of the Indian film industry for several decades. Mithun is best known for his films, such as Disco Dancer, Pyar Jhutkta Nahin, Prem Pratigyaa, and Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki, to name a few.
As Mithun Da turns a year older today (June 16), let's look back to the time when he was called a 'hero' during his struggling days in Bombay.
Mithun Da recalls the time when a coolie called him a 'hero'
During an appearance on Doordarshan's show, Surbhi, in 1993, Mithun Chakraborty shared an old anecdote of his encounter with a porter when he deboarded the train at Dadar railway station.
Recalling the incident from 1969, Mithun Da shared that the coolie referred to him as a 'hero' while he was carrying his luggage at the station.
"Main samaan lekar ja raha tha toh peeche se ek coolie ne aawaz di 'ae hero'. Toh mai ruk gaya 'main hero jaisa lag raha hoon kya'? Kyunki sapne mein nahin socha tha koi hero bolega (I stopped and wondered if I looked like a hero to him. Because in my dreams I never thought that someone would call me a hero)," he said.
Mithun Da realized that 'hero' was a common word for every passenger
Mithun Chakraborty further shared that he realized that the porters would refer to all the passengers as 'hero' so that they could lift their luggage.
Mithun Da concluded that he was mistaken for the term 'hero.' However, it worked like a manifestation for him, as he later became a superstar.
"Aur shayad us coolie ke munh se wahi lafz dua ban kar nikli hogi ki main hero ban gaya (And perhaps the same word would have come out of that porter's mouth in the form of a prayer that I have become a hero)," he said.
Mithun Chakraborty's work front
Mithun Chakraborty is fondly known as the 'dancing star' in the Hindi film industry. His other notable works include Agneepath, Oh My God!, Golmaal 3, Housefull 2, Khiladi 786, The Tashkent Files, and more.
In Bollywood, Mithun Da was last seen in The Kashmir Files in 2022.