Hailing from a non-filmy background Subrat Dutta[3] had no planning to join films and he was preparing for his MBA, when suddenly an advertisement about a theatre workshop caught his attention. The 40 day long workshop organised by National School of Drama in Berhampore, West Bengal made him change his mind and he decided to join the school.
After completing his master's degree from National School of Drama he received a scholarship from Charles Wallace Trust, New Delhi and joined Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Swanand Kirkire and Chittaranjan Tripathy were his National School of Drama batchmates.
He started his acting career as a theatre artist for NSD Repertory Company[4] and played lead role in 35 plays before joining films.
Subrat Dutta[5] has learnt dance from PranatI Sengupta and continued to take part in Tagore Dance Drama. He tried to learn Kathak but left after few months. He has also worked in amateur "Jatra".
Acting career
He made silver screen debut with Hindi film Karvaan[6] by Pankaj Butalia as the main protagonist in 1999. His first Bengali film was Uttara by Buddhadev Dasgupta where he played a small role of a Hindu militant.
In the beginning of his career he has worked for many television series too. His work was noticed in Bengali teleseries Shudhu Tomari Jonyo.[7] He has worked in few episodes of the series "Tehreer…Munshi Premchand Ki”[8] by Gulzar, based on stories of Munsi Premchand directed . He was also featured in few episodes of the thriller series Kagaar on Sahara One. Later he returned to television once with Yash Raj Films series Powder in 2010.
After making his debut in both Bollywood and Bengali film, he went on to work in both the industries together. Bollywood films like 88 Antop Hill (2003), Zammen (2003) and Bengali film Swapner Feriwala (2002) were some of his early works.
In 2009 he was awarded Best Actor at Cairo International Film Festival, Egypt for his portrayal of the main protagonist Madholal in the film Madholal Keep Walking[12][13] by Jai Tank.[14] The film received positive reviews from critics and Subrat Dutta’s character was highly praised that gave him lead roles in many commercial and independent films in later years.
His next venture was Ram Gopal Varma’s magnum opus, Rakhcharitra part I and &II[15] (2010), where he was noticed for playing the character of AK in Hindi & Telugu simultaneously. In the same year he appeared in Bengali films Achin Pakhi[16] and Antim Shash Sundar[17][18] opposite Indrani Haldar. He next worked in Talaash(2012), Bengali project Koyekti Meyer Golpo[19] (2012), and some independent Hindi films like Oass (2012), Kaphal[20] (2012) and Baromas[21] (2013), before bagging the role of engineer ghost in super hit film Bhootnath Returns (2014).
He next appeared as the main villain Bheera in Roar: Tigers of the Sundarbans[11] (2014) based on tiger poaching in Sundarbans and film director Basu in Akshay Kumar starrer Bollywood film TheShaukeens[11][22] (2014). In both the films his role received critical acclaim. He also appeared in films like Bumper Draw (2015), Charlie Kay Chakkar Mein (2015) and played lead role as ATS Chief in Sameer[23][24] (2017) and Gandhian Divakar in Humne Gandhi Ko Mar Diya[25] (2018). His next release was multilimgual III Smoking Barrels[26] where he played the character of a Bangladeshi refugee[27] earned him immense applause from pan Indian audience and critics. His character Mukhtar[28][29] turns the victim of illegal Elephant poaching where his every move and actions got praised by the critics.
Subrat Dutta was part of Bengali popular series Byomkesh also. He played a noticeable role in Har Har Byomkesh in 2015. Later he played Ajit for Byomkesh[30] series of popular Bengali online channel Hoichoi.[31] He has played the lead character in the emotional drama Bhairavi[32] which was released exclusively on Muvizz.com in 2016.
Apart from Bollywood and Bengali films he has also appeared in Marathi film Lalbaugchi Rani (2016), Bhojpuri films Tujhse Laagi Lagan, Pistol Ego Prem Kahani and American production English language film Behind the Trees.[33]
Subrat Dutta has acted in more than 45 films. Most of his films like Uttara, Kaphal: The Wild Berries,[34]Chaturanga, Bibar, Madholal Keep Walking[13] were shown in prestigious National & International Festivals & also won couple of prestigious National and International awards. He has often been referred 'chameleon' as he changed his appearance for every film and experimented with his look for each character he played.
Subrat Dutta appears in TV and web commercials regularly. Some of his notable commercials are Parle G,[40] Wonder cement,[41]AircelIP[42]L Commercial, OLX.[43] and Google Paise.[44]
Personal life
Subrat Dutta is a Yoga expert[45] and practitioner. He was married to theatre director Robijita Gogoii from 2006 to 2018 whom he met in National School of Drama. After long year of courtship they got married on 29 August 2006. Together they have a daughter named Aatreyi born on 8 June 2010.
He has played the character of a broker in Netflix Original Series Selection Day. He has also appeared as Ajit in Hoichoi TV’s popular show Byomkesh[30] for three seasons from 2017-2018.
