In 1975, the same year Sholay released, Amitabh Bachchan acted in an Assamese film that never saw the light of day. Sonti, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist directed by Ajay Mitra, survives today only in a fading black and white photograph — showing Bachchan in a fight scene with Assamese actor Dinesh Das.
“They had built the set of an Assam-style house in the studio and we had shot a fight scene on its roof,” Das told ThePrint over the phone from his home in Assam, where the 84-year-old is currently bedridden. The scene, he recalled, was filmed on the second floor of Technician Studio in Kolkata.
“I had to attack Bachchan with a knife. I had learned knife-fighting and knife-throwing six months earlier for another Assamese film, Manab Aru Danab. That skill came in handy here,” he said.
Das is popular in the Assamese cinema for playing the role of villains in several films. In Sonti, too, he was portraying the main antagonist Fagin.
In Oliver Twist, the young orphan is drawn into the criminal gang of Fagin, a pickpocket ringleader. In Sonti, the character was renamed Fatik Chand, played by Das. The role of Sonti, the boy who runs away from home and joins the gang, was played by a young actor named Mridul.
“Bachchan was playing the role of Sonti’s father,” Das said.
The film was being made simultaneously in Assamese, Oriya, and Bengali.
“Renowned theatre actor Shombhu Mitra played my character in the Bengali version,” Das recalled.
Also read: Sholay is 50. What scholars have written about it
How Bachchan came on board
Veteran Assamese film journalist Sitanu Borah told ThePrint that Amitabh Bachchan joined Sonti through his producer friends Tito and Tony Juneja.
“Tito and Tony, well-known producers in the Hindi film industry at the time, were very close to Bachchan. They were producing Sonti, and through them, he came on board,” Borah said.
The Junejas had produced several of Bachchan’s 1970s hits, including Do Anjaane, Mr Natwarlal, and Ram Balram. Bachchan had come to Kolkata to meet them when they requested him to join the Assamese film.
“I don’t recall fully, but this was how he came on board for Sonti. I remember shooting with him for a week,” Das said.
In an earlier interview, Das described Bachchan as a “soft-spoken gentleman”. Das said the Sholay actor had asked him to “come to Bombay,” promising his help.
Das couldn’t take the offer as he had a government job at the time and a family to run.
“It would have been a gamble for me,” Das told this author in 2018. “Many actors from Assam went to Bombay to try their luck but had to return.”
Also read: Remembering Amjad Khan, the versatile actor who was Bollywood’s favourite villain
An unreleased movie, a missed opportunity
Das still regrets that Sonti was never released.
“I had done one of my best work in the movie. It would have been a treat for the audience in Assam to see Amitabh Bachchan mouthing Assamese dialogues in an Assamese movie. It would certainly have been a very positive development for the movie industry in Assam,” he said.
Noted film critic and filmmaker Utpal Borpujari agreed.
“Like elsewhere in the country, Sholay was a huge success in Assam. Bachchan was in the process of becoming a big star. His presence in an Assamese film would have significantly boosted our industry,” he told ThePrint.
He cited Bachchan’s later role in Anusandhan (1981), the Bengali version of his Hindi film Barsaat Ki Ek Raat, which did “huge business” in Bengal.
“A similar thing could have happened with Sonti,” he said.
Borpujari noted Bachchan wouldn’t have been the first major Hindi actor to work in Assamese cinema.
“Balraj Sahni acted in Era Bator Sur (1966), directed by Bhupen Hazarika. Both Sahni and Hazarika were members of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and this fuelled their collaboration. Also, filmmaker Asit Sen, who directed movies like Khamoshi and Safar, started his career directing an Assamese movie,” he said.
National Award-winning filmmaker Jahnu Barua also cast Mumbai actors in his debut Aparoopa (1982), including Suhasini Mulay and Girish Karnad, alongside Assamese actor Biju Phukan. In its Hindi version, Apeksha, Farooque Sheikh played the male lead. Barua, however, declined to comment on Sonti.
In more recent years, actors like Yashpal Sharma, Shakti Kapoor and Panchayat’s Doorgesh Kumar have acted in Assamese films.
Actor-filmmaker Kenny Basumatary, who has played pivotal roles in big-ticket productions like Shanghai, Jawan, and Paatal Lok Season 2, said that casting well-known actors from Mumbai is no guarantee of success.
“It will initially pique the public’s interest, but ultimately, whether the movie will run or not depends on its merit,” he told ThePrint.
“If a filmmaker has clout in Mumbai and their films regularly do multi-crore business, then maybe they can approach the actors from Mumbai. Also, apart from the actor’s fees, we need to give them good facilities like we get when we are working in a Bollywood production,” he added.
Nabarun Guha is an independent journalist based in Guwahati, Assam. He tweets @nabarun_guha45.
(Edited by Prashant)