Wednesday, May 25 2005 12:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Veteran actor and Union Sports Minister Sunil Dutt died in Mumbai today (May 25, 2005) after a brief illness sending a wave of shock and grief in the film industry and political circle.

Family sources said, though they were apprehensive when Dutt failed to get up at his usual time of 07:00 hrs (IST), he was not awakened since he had a fever for the past few days.

However, when Dutt failed to awake even till 11:00 hrs (IST), family members decided to inquire only to find him dead, sources said.

A family physician was summoned, who later declared Dutt dead due to cardiac arrest, sources added.

Senior Congress leader and former MP Murli Deora said he had spoken to Dutt last night (May 24, 2005) after the latter returned from Kanpur.

"Dutt said he was feeling unwell probably because of a sun stroke due to severe heat conditions in northern India and returned to Mumbai instead of going back to Delhi," Deora told reporters in Mumbai.

"When Dutt was unwell, he usually used to get himself admitted to Breach Candy Hospital. But we do not know why yesterday he chose to remain at home," Deora said.

The 75-year-old Dutt, who had been in public eye for the last five decades including forty years as a star actor, is survived by his son Sanjay Dutt, a popular actor himself, and two daughters.

A popular star in the 1960s, Dutt alongwith his late wife Nargis, made a name for themselves in the social and cultural circles contributing their mite for many causes.

A five-time MP, Dutt contested his first Lok Sabha elections after joining the Congress in 1984.

He was a personal choice of late Rajiv Gandhi. Winning the Mumbai North West seat in his maiden attempt, he retained it in the 1989 and 1991 elections.

He did not contest the 1996 and 1998 elections as he was preoccupied with a case against his son Sanjay by the Mumbai police. He won the 1999, 2000 and 2004 elections.

Dutt acted in scores of films including the classic Mother India, which propelled him to stardom, Gumraah, Waqt, Humraaz, Khandaan, Milan, Reshma Aur Shera.

Dutt became a Union Minister for the first time in his two decade long political career when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave him the Sports and Youth Affairs portfolio last year.

As a Minister, Dutt not only had time to hear the plight of sportspersons, he also made a concerted effort to improve the standard of Indian athletes by taking up several initiatives.

Fate seemed to have meted out a never-ending spate of tragedies in Dutt's life, but bitterness and self-pity seemed to find no place for resting in his soul, in spite of his receiving one shattering blow after another.

Born in Khurd village in Jhelum district, now in Pakistan on June 6, 1929, he lost his father when he was five and his mother at 23. Life had taken him through the trauma of partition, his wife's untimely death due to cancer and his son's arrest after the Mumbai bomb blast in 1992.

But all these tragedies failed to deter the man from following his first love - cinema - and serve the community through politics.

After his wife's death, he lost himself in politics and his involvement in it was complete.

When he spoke about the country, he spoke selflessly from the heart.

He can perhaps, best be described in his own words while quoting the philosophy of the Bhagvad Gita. "You are just expected to perform your duties and not expect any rewards. As a citizen of India, I am concerned with giving my best."

Dutt started his career in Bollywood with the film Railway Platform in 1955, but it was Mother India, which took his film career to a new high and also brought him close to Nargis, whom he saved from death by fire on the set of the movie, in which they played mother and son.

The film consolidated his image of the bandit king - a role he played repeatedly in films like Mujhe Jeene Do, Daku aur Jawan and several others.

But there were also other images he fulfilled, the simpleton who got bullied and bamboozled in a series of family dramas like Khandaan, Meherbaan, Milan and Padosan and the suave and sophisticated character in Humraaz and Waqt.

He turned to film direction in 1964 with his experimental flick Yaddein and Yeh Rastein Hai Pyaar Ke. His films had a character of their own and did not follow the beaten track for which he ended up losing a lot of money on them.

That forced him to turn to the glamorous films in the 1970s like Heera and Zakhmee, in order to pay off a mountain of debts.

As soon as this was done, he shifted back to making films with strong themes like Dard Ka Rishta and Yeh Aag Kab Bujhegi.

The last movie in which Dutt acted was Munna Bhai MBBS where his son played the lead role.

As far as life beyond the movies was concerned, Dutt had started the Ajanta Arts Trust after being persuaded by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

His relations with both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi was also always cordial.