Mithun Chakraborty: The unsung hero of BJP's West Bengal blockbuster show
"In 2026, the masnad (throne) will be ours [BJP's], and we will do everything to achieve the goal." That was what Mithun Chakraborty predicted after
"In 2026, the masnad (throne) will be ours [BJP's], and we will do everything to achieve the goal." That was what Mithun Chakraborty predicted after the BJP's setback in West Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The BJP did ascend the Bengal throne in 2026. And Mithun emerged as one of the silent heroes of the victory. It's been over a month since the BJP won the Bengal Assembly polls, ending the TMC's 15-year rule. But in the saffron party's breakthrough victory, Mithun Chakraborty stands out as the figure whose role has not been discussed much. Read Full Story Mithun, fondly known as Mithun Da, embodied the overlap between Bengal's cultural influence and politics. Throughout the Assembly polls, Mithun did not operate like a conventional neta. It was his screen legacy and the nostalgia attached to it that stayed alive in public memory. While the BJP's campaign itself revolved around Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the party's central face, anti-incumbency sentiment, and the BJP's long push into Bengal, Mithun's contribution seemingly worked in different ways. He was not the loudest voice in the room, nor the most visible face on the ground. His presence, though, seemingly had emotional familiarity, especially among millennials and older Bengali voters who grew up watching him dominate cinema screens through the 1980s and 1990s. Mithun is the Mahanayak. In Bengal, where cinema and politics have historically overlapped, that kind of recall matters a lot. The optics after the BJP's victory, with Mithun standing beside Modi and the Prime Minister leaning in to whisper in the veteran actor's ear, became symbolic in itself. Such proximity to the top leadership is often read as a marker of value and trust. In politics, these visuals carry their own weight beyond formal roles. That positioning also sits within his broader connect with the RSS. In 2019, he met RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur for an hour-long discussion. In February 2021, he hosted Bhagwat for breakfast at his Mumbai residence. The BJP tried to make inroads into West Bengal for decades, struggling to move beyond single-digit seat tallies. In that context, Mithun's proximity to the party's top leadership suggested that even if he did not campaign extensively, he was viewed as more than a celebrity face — someone who could help soften the BJP's image in a state that has been resistant to BJP's brand of politics.
Ahead of the 2026 Bengal Assembly election, Mithun took a hard stand against illegal immigration from Bangladesh. "As long as people like Mithun Chakraborty have a drop of blood in their body, this state will never become Bangladesh," he said. After the results, it seems even his son, Mahaakshay Chakraborty, by sheer coincidence, is also witnessing a better time professionally. Mahaakshay-starrer Haunted 3D: Echoes of the Past has performed better-than-expected at the box office. MITHUN'S JOURNEY FROM A NAXAL TO A FILMSTAR TO A POLITICIAN Mithun Chakraborty's own journey has seemingly mirrored Bengal's political moods. Both have shifted quite drastically over the decades. Born Gouranga Chakraborty in Kolkata in 1950, he was briefly associated with the Naxalite movement during the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s. Like many young Bengalis of that generation, he was drawn toward radical Left politics at a time when rebellion carried intellectual and emotional appeal. Personal tragedy was involved, and accounts mention the death of his brother in an accident, which reportedly pushed him away from that Naxal world. Cinema is where he reinvented himself. After training at FTII Pune, he made a remarkable debut in Mrinal Sen's Mrigayaa (1976), playing a tribal hunter trapped within structures of exploitation and power. The role earned him the Film Award for Best Actor and immediately established him as a serious performer. Interestingly, his early filmography still reflected the anti-establishment themes that aligned with his youthful politics. Even The Naxalites (1980) kept him connected to that imagery of rebellion. But Mithun's true transformation came in the 1980s, when he shifted from parallel cinema to mass stardom. Disco Dancer (1982) turned him into a phenomenon not just in India, but across the Soviet Union and parts of Eastern Europe. Suddenly, he was no longer merely an actor with critical acclaim. He had become a pop-cultural export. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award. Unlike many stars who remained confined to metropolitan audiences, Mithun's appeal spread deep into smaller towns and working-class belts in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal. That became especially important in his home state. By the 2000s, Bengali cinema was going through one of its many identity crises, caught between fading mainstream formulas and niche urban storytelling. Mithun stepped into that vacuum with films like Yuddho (2005), MLA Fatakeshto (2006), and Tulkalam (2007). Critics in elite circles often dismissed these films as loud or unsophisticated, but they connected powerfully with audiences across West Bengal.
The BriefWire