Achhut
1940 Indian film by Chandulal Shah
Achhut (The Untouchable) is a 1940 social Indian Bollywood film based on untouchability. It was the third highest grossing Indian film of 1940. The film was produced by Chandulal Shah for his Ranjit Studios. He also wrote the story and screenplay, and directed it. Achhut's premiere was attended by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on 23 December 1939, who stated: "If the picture helps India to remove this curse, it can be said to have helped India to win Swaraj as untouchability is one of the chief obstacles in the road to freedom".
The film had Motilal and Gohar in the main lead with, Sitara Devi, Trilok Kapoor, Mazhar Khan, Noor Mohammed Charlie, Vasanti and Rajkumari playing important roles. The music was by Gyan Dutt, with lyrics by Raghunath Brahmabhatt. The cinematography was by Krishna Gopal.
The film was made to "promote Gandhi's movement against untouchability". The film was initially released in the Gujarati version on 23 December 1939.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Achhut” as 1940 Indian film by Chandulal Shah. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1940 Indian film by Chandulal Shah. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4673649. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Achhut” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.