Guru Dutt (born July 9, 1925, Bangalore [now Bengaluru], Mysore princely state [now Karnataka, India]—died October 10, 1964, Bombay [now Mumbai]) was a Hindi motion-picture producer, director, writer, and actor, whose mastery of such elements as mood and lighting in a group of melodramas made him one of the best-known and most-accomplished stylists of Bollywood ’s golden age.