Uttam Kumar

Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay, known professionally as Uttam Kumar, was an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, composer and playback singer who predominantly worked in Bengali cinema. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most successful actors in the history of Indian cinema, Kumar dominated Bengali cinema from the 1950s throughout the 1970s, being referred to as "Mahanayak". His accolades include five National Awards and four Filmfare Awards.

Uttam Kumar was born as Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay on 3 September 1926 at his maternal home, situated at 51 Ahiritola Street in northern Calcutta (now Kolkata ), in the Bengal Province of British India (now in West Bengal , India ). His father was Satkari Chattopadhyay, a Hindu Brahmin from Hooghly district, and his mother was Chapala Devi. Initially he was named "Uttam" by his maternal grandfather, although his mother did not like this name, so the name "Arun" was given.

Sripurna Sanyasi, the spiritual master of his maternal family, predicted that the entire country would recognise him by the name "Uttam", seeing his smile. Belonging to an extended middle-class family, Kumar's father was a film projectionist in Metro Cinema . He had two brothers, Barun and Tarun , of which the latter also became an actor.