Tarun Bose

In our earlier articles, we have highlighted how a particular character gets stuck to an actor so much that even after years, people remember the actor for that role or movie.

Today, we will cover an artist from the golden era of ’50s and ’60s, who was highly talented and did various character roles in his lifetime. He could have been counted as one of the legends of Bollywood if death had not taken him away at a young age, cutting his rising career short. Nevertheless, he attained immortality as the killer of the 1965 hit Gumnaam.

Most of our old readers might have guessed the actor after reading the movie name; Yes; he is Tarun Bose.

Tarun was one of the busiest character actors during the golden era of Hindi films and worked with most top stars and directors. The characters he played would always be different and experimental, even as he didn’t hesitate to play elderly or father roles to actors around the same age as him. To give you a comparison, what Tarun Bose did in his career was replicated later by Sanjeev Kumar in the ’70s and Anupam Kher in Saaransh in ’80s.

Tarun was born on 28th September, 1928 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) but grew up in Nagpur, Maharashtra due to which his command over Hindi and Urdu was good as Nagpur in those times, was the capital of Central India and these two languages were commonly spoken there.

Tarun Bose completed his matriculation at St. George School, Nagpur during the British Raj. Thus, apart from Hindi and Urdu, he gained fluency in English as well. Tarun would participate in plays right since his growing up days.

Amusingly, Tarun had a problem speaking his mother tongue Bengali in those days and when he acted in his first Bengali play, there was a backlash from the audience asking why non-Bengali actors are cast in their plays. Taking this reaction as an insult, Tarun improved his accent and later, went to do many successful plays in Bengali.

In 1943, All India Radio (AIR) started operations in Nagpur and at the age of just fifteen years, Tarun Bose auditioned for the same, got selected for his rich baritone and started doing plays for AIR.

Tarun was very passionate about acting since childhood and while he was entering his teens, he was almost close to fulfilling his dream of becoming an actor. As an adult, he dreamt of working in Hindi movies but knew that getting a break in Bombay (now Mumbai) and surviving its fast life, was very difficult for an outsider.

Though acting was his passion, Tarun took up a nine to five job at Post and Telegraph Department to support his family of wife and two kids. He never left his first love i.e., acting and continued to act and direct on stage as well as radio plays.

Lady luck smiled on Tarun when a film came walking to him without any struggle. He was already a big and respected name in Nagpur, known for his plays. The management of St. Francis School decided to come up with a new college building and the principal requested Tarun Bose to take up a play in order to raise funds for this project. Tarun and his team set up a play titled Aur Yeh Insaan, which was already staged before.

Acclaimed film director Bimal Roy was invited as the chief guest for this event. Tarun Bose wasn’t happy with this decision and felt that probably a star actor would gather more attention. But he never realized that it was God’s plan to allow him an entry in Bollywood.

Bimal Roy was so impressed by Tarun Bose’s performance that he invited him to come to Bombay and work in films. At first, Tarun felt hesitant to quit his stable job and felt shifting to Bombay was a big risk. But Bimal Roy took him under his fold and Tarun would draw salary from his production house (Bimal Roy Productions).

Tarun Bose was possibly the first actor to work on a salary basis in a production house. His family too shifted to the city of dreams and Tarun finally realised the Bollywood dream he aspired for. He debuted with the movie Apradhi Kaun (1957), which was produced by Bimal Roy and directed by Asit Sen.

From here, there was no looking back for Bose and he worked with legends like Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra, Mala Sinha, Balraj Sahani, Rajendra Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Nanda, Nutan, Asha Parekh and then newcomer Amitabh Bachchan. He became a regular of top directors like Bimal Roy, Asit Sen, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Pramod Chakravorty, Mohan Sehgal and Biren Nag.

Always known for his intense portrayals and a soft-spoken demeanour even as a villain, Sujata (1959) remains one of Tarun’s most appreciated characters, where he played Nutan’s foster father. Another of his memorable role was of Dilip Kumar’s good friend in Madhumati (1958). Tarun also played the character of Dr. Mathur in Meri Surat Teri Aankhen (1963) and was reluctant to take up the role initially as he had to play a father figure to the much older Ashok Kumar but chose to do it later and the character became closest to his heart as in real life; Ashok Kumar was his father figure.

In his entire career, Tarun did lot of memorable roles but one performance which remains ever fresh in audience memory is his negative act in Gumnaam – a slasher suspense movie much ahead of its time. Gumnaam’s plot revolved around a few people stranded on an island, where they get killed one by one by a supposed serial killer. Though Tarun Bose is finally revealed to be that serial killer, he appeared a soft-spoken sophisticated villain, who committed the murders due to circumstances.

After Gumnaam’s success, Tarun’s career reached a peak and he appeared to have a bright future in front of him. Unfortunately, one morning, an otherwise hale and hearty Tarun Bose suddenly suffered a heart attack while playing badminton. His family doctor was immediately called but Tarun passed away even before the doctor could tend to him. The unfortunate day was 8th March, 1972 and Tarun was only forty three years old when he passed away.

Many of his films released posthumously after his death like Ek Nazar (1972), Jyot Jale (1973), Mehmaan (1973), Jeevan Sangram (1974), Vachan (1974) and his last release Do Ladkiyan (1976).

If not for his early death, Tarun Bose could have reached the level of actors like Iftekhar, Madan Puri, Nasir Hussain, Om Shivpuri, Utpal Dutt and Abhi Bhattacharya, who played important character roles in the ’70s and are termed as legends today for their significant contribution to Bollywood.

The reason behind his untimely death was never mentioned anywhere on social media until recently, his son Anoop Bose shared it in a YouTube video.

Tarun Bose also had a daughter Shilpi, who ran a blog on him called ‘Tarun Bose and the world of cinema’, where she shared details about his films and some relevant trivia. The blog had many followers. Sadly, Shilpi passed away in 2022.

Today, when Gumnaam is inching close to sixty years, Tarun Bose’s character still remains iconic and people invariably refer him as the villain of this iconic thriller.