Early Life and Background
Guru Dutt was born on 9 July 1925, at Bangalore to Shivashanker Rao Padukone and Vasanthi Padukone in a Konkani Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family. His father was initially a headmaster, and then a bank employee. His mother Vasanthi, while initially a housewife, later taught in a school, gave private tuition and also wrote short stories and translated Bengali novels into Kannada. Vasanthi was only 16 when Guru Dutt was born.
Guru Dutt had a tough childhood with financial difficulties, and was also affected by the fact that the relationship between his parents was strained. As a child he had some bad experiences; the hostility from his maternal uncle's family, a frightening encounter with his insane adopted maternal uncle, and the death of his seven-month old brother (Shashidhar).
Guru Dutt spent his early childhood in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and he grew close to Bengali culture and intellect. He even adopted the name Guru Dutt,it being a common Bengali surname. He was joined by three younger brothers, Atmaram, Devidas and Vijay and a younger sister, Lalitha. The Indian film director, Kalpana Lajmi, is his sister's daughter.
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