structural:expansion, structural:scholar_edition, quality:corruption, information:extraction
Breakthrough

After his time with Prabhat failed in 1947, Dutt moved to Bombay, where he worked with two leading directors of the time: Amiya Chakravarty in Girls' School (1949); and Gyan Mukherjee in the Bombay Talkies film Sangram (1950). Around this time, Dev Anand offered Dutt a job as a director in his new company, Navketan. Back in their time at Prabhat while both still new to the industry, Anand and Dutt reached an agreement that if Dutt were to become a filmmaker, he would hire Anand as his hero, and if Anand were to produce a film, he would use Dutt as its director. Keeping that promise, the duo made two super-hit films together in a row.

First, Anand hired Dutt for Baazi (1951), starring Anand himself and marking Dutt's directorial debut. With its morally ambiguous hero, the transgressing siren, and shadow lighting, the film was a tribute to the 1940s film noir genre of Hollywood, and defined the noir genre for the following decade in Bollywood. Baazi, which was an immediate success, was followed by Jaal (1952), also directed by Dutt and starring Anand, and was again successful at the box office.

Dutt went on to cast Anand in C.I.D. (1956). After Dutt's death, Anand said that "He was a young man, he should not have made depressing pictures." Creative differences between Dutt, and Chetan Anand (Anand's elder brother), who was also a director, made future collaborations difficult.

For his next project, Dutt directed and starred in Baaz (1953). Though the film did not perform very well at the box office, it brought together what would be known as the Guru Dutt team, who performed well in subsequent films. The team included various filmmakers discovered and mentored by Dutt, including: Johnny Walker (actor-comedian), V.K. Murthy (cinematographer), Abrar Alvi (writer-director), Raj Khosla (writer), Waheeda Rehman (actress), among others.Dutt's next films, however, were blockbusters: Aar Paar in 1954; Mr. & Mrs. '55 in 1955; C.I.D. then Sailaab in 1956; and Pyaasa in 1957. Dutt played the lead role in three of these five films.

In 1959 came the release of Dutt's Kaagaz Ke Phool, the first Indian film produced in CinemaScope. Despite the innovation, Kaagaz —about a famous director (played by Dutt) who falls in love with an actress (played by Waheeda Rehman, Dutt's real-life love interest)—was an intense disappointment at the box office. All subsequent films from his studio were, thereafter, officially headed by other directors, since Dutt felt that his name was anathema to the box office. It would be the only film produced by Dutt that was considered a box office disaster, for which Dutt lost over Rs. 17 crore, a large amount by the standards of that time.