Guru Dutt - Death

Death

On 10 October 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment at Pedder Road in Mumbai. He is said to have been mixing alcohol and sleeping pills. His death may have been suicide, or just an accidental overdose. It would have been his third suicide attempt.

Guru Dutt's son, Arun Dutt, said that he views this as an accident in an interview with India Abroad in October 2004 on the 40th anniversary of his father's death. Guru Dutt had scheduled appointments the next day with actress Mala Sinha for his movie Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, and Raj Kapoor to discuss making colour films. According to him, "my father had sleeping disorders and popped sleeping pills like any other person. That day he was drunk and had taken an overdose of pills, which culminated in his death. It was a lethal combination of excessive liquor and sleeping pills."

At the time of his death, Guru Dutt was involved in two other projects - Picnic starring actress Sadhana, and director K. Asif's epic, Love and God. Picnic remained incomplete and Love and God was released two decades later with Sanjeev Kumar replacing Dutt in the leading role.

The extra-feature on DVD of Kaagaz Ke Phool has a 3 part Channel 4 produced documentary on the life and works of Guru Dutt titled In Search of Guru Dutt.

Most people, especially Abrar Alvi, figured it was a suicide. Abrar and Dutt had many-a-times discussed ways of committing suicide and both had tried at least once but had failed. Abrar and Guru Dutt sat late that night discussing a movie, and according to Alvi, during their conversation, Guru Dutt was very morbid in his thinking and conversation.
He was, according to many, distressed by his personal situation - his wife, Geeta Dutt, had distanced herself from him. He had a sleeping disorder that made him take sleeping pills, and he had been drinking since 5:00 pm that evening.

According to Asha Bhonsle, Guru Dutt called her at midnight before his death to ask whether Geeta, his wife was with her to which she replied in negative. She was the last person who spoke with Guru Dutt.( Doordarshan Documentary on Guru Dutt aired on Oct 10 2011)