What can you expect from the Sanjay Dutt biopic?

A junkie, troubled personal life, rock star, bad company, imprisonment, politics, multiple marriages, a child at heart – Sanjay Dutt's life is an open book, and the many phases (lows and highs) make it an arduous task for filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani and writer Abhijat Joshi to put all of it together in a feature film. 

The Dutt biopic, starring Ranbir Kapoor in the lead, will go on the floors in January with Hirani hoping to release the film at Christmas 2017. The project has taken time purely because the scripting was tough given the eventful life Dutt has led. Hirani has been quoted as saying that the film will not glorify Dutt and he will cover the important aspects of his life from age 18 to 55. Hirani and Joshi are said to have spent 25 days just listening to Dutt recite his story.

Meanwhile, there is speculation as to what will one get to see in the film. The current generation may not know a whole lot of things that occurred in Dutt’s early life. So here’s a look at the important events in Sanjay Dutt’s life.

1. Sanjay Dutt leaving jail on 25 February 2016

It is well documented that Hirani shot footage of Dutt stepping out of Yerawada jail on 25 February 2016, upon completing his sentence. Speculation is rife that this could be the opening scene of the film. That might be the only scene where Dutt will be seen in the film. Perhaps, viewers would like to know how Dutt spent his three years in jail. Hopefully, Hirani will also throw light on the numerous controversial furloughs/paroles granted to Dutt. The keen viewer would be interested to know how Dutt maintained his fitness in jail.

2. Instant fame with Rocky, mother Nargis’s death, and subsequent drug addiction

Born to film stars Nargis and Sunil Dutt, Sanjay was long touted to follow in their footsteps. Sunil Dutt launched his son with the 1981 drama Rocky. Sadly, neither Sunil nor Sanjay Dutt could celebrate the occasion as Nargis died of cancer four days before its release. Nargis’s death had an adverse affect on Sanjay and he took to drugs to get over the trauma. The addiction gripped him for three years before his father sent him to the US to save his life. Save for this, nothing much is known about this phase of Sanjay Dutt’s life. Fans would be keen to know how Dutt battled this hellish period. 

3. Finds love only to lose her like his mother; loses daughter’s custody, too

Those who have seen the 1986 film Anubhav would remember the beauty that was Richa Sharma. Dutt succumbed to her charms and married her in 1987. A year later, Sharma gave birth to their only child, daughter Trishala. But tragedy struck the Dutt household again when Sharma died of brain tumour in 1996. Sanjay Dutt suffered another blow when Trishala’s US-based grandparents succeeded in getting her custody. Was it Sharma’s death alone that led to Dutt losing Trishala’s custody? 

4. Jailed, charged under TADA, bailed out by Bal Thackeray

Arguably the most controversial and lowest phase of Dutt’s life is the one that would return to haunt him two decades later. Anger spilled against Sanjay Dutt after he was arrested in connection with the 1993 Bombay blasts that left 257 people dead and over 700 injured. Fearing for his family's safety in the 1992-93 riots, Dutt had sought weapons from gangster Abu Salem, one of the blast conspirators. He would pay dearly for the offence, as he was booked under the stringent Terrorist And Disruptive Activities Act (TADA). His relationship with the underworld before the blasts is a dark secret, now waiting to be unravelled. 

The period from 1993 to 1997 saw Dutt going in and out of jail. Whilst the public anger was at an all-time high, Dutt found the film industry standing up for him. Ironically, 1993 was the year he played an imperfect villain in Subhash Ghai’s Khal Nayak. While the film showed him as a fugitive, there was no such luxury in real life. Sunil Dutt, a Congress member of Parliament, eventually sought the intervention of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to free his son after his own party bosses refused to help. When Dutt came out of jail, the first thing he did was fall at Thackeray’s feet. It will be interesting to see whether Hirani shows what transpired between Thackeray and Sunil Dutt.

5. Marriage to Rhea Dutt and subsequent divorce

It would be difficult for Hirani to disclose Dutt’s second marriage to model Rhea Pillai in detail. So, one can expect him to squeeze it in briefly. Though married to Dutt, Pillai fell in love and had an affair and a child with tennis star Leander Paes. She eventually got divorced from Dutt in 2007. Their marriage lasted seven years.

6. Third time lucky – Dutt finds true love in Manyata

Buzz had it that Dutt wanted Katrina Kaif to play the role of his third wife, Manyata (earlier known as Dilnawaz Sheikh) but that looks difficult considering that Kaif is no longer dating Ranbir Kapoor. Who is Manyata? How did she come into Dutt’s life? All we know is that Manyata had done an item song in Prakash Jha's Gangaajal. Both Sanjay Dutt and Manyata have kept their relationship private. In fact, they had a secret marriage and it was only when a TV journalist spotted her wearing sindoor (vermilion) that the couple went public. Manyata gave birth to twins – Shahraan (boy) and girl (Iqra). The Manyata-Sanjay relationship has remained a mystery to the public. Fans would certainly want to know more about her.

7. Father-son relationship

Like the rest of the world, Sanjay always referred to his father, Sunil Dutt, as Dutt saheb. Given the numerous points of turmoil in his life, Sunil Dutt must have had a tough time dealing with it, especially since he lost his wife Nargis early and his daughters were married. Through all the hardship, Sunil Dutt remained the perfect gentleman, appreciated even by his political adversaries. It will be intriguing to know how Sanjay Dutt coped when Sunil Dutt passed away in 2005. Hirani will have a tough task to choose the actor to play Sunil Dutt and to decide which aspects of the complicated father-son relationship to depict.

8. Poor at politics/ soured relationship with Priya Dutt

Sunil Dutt had such a presence that often one loses sight of the fact that his daughter Priya, too, has been a successful politician. Sanjay Dutt is said to be extremely close to his sisters Priya and Namrata. The three siblings faced some tough times after losing their mother. We have seen the siblings cry on television chat shows. For long it was believed that they were inseparable. However, one was shocked when Dutt joined a rival party. It is no secret that good friend and former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh was instrumental in Dutt joining the party. There was a buzz that Dutt wasn’t happy with the way the Congress had treated his father and so chose to join the SP. But sister Priya remained loyal to the Congress. So, did this cause friction between the siblings? The Priya-Sanjay relationship would also have been affected by the former publicly disowning Manyata and accusing her of sabotaging the bond among the siblings. Sanjay’s daughter Trishala, too, has never been fond of Manyata. 

Luckily, Dutt soon found out that politics wasn’t his cup of tea and so quit the Samajwadi Party. The ice melted when Manyata got pregnant. The bad blood was forgotten and Priya Dutt stood by her sister-in-law during her pregnancy. The twins – Shahraan and Iqra – have reunited the family.

9. How Munna Bhai shaped Dutt’s career

For all his personal and legal troubles, Sanjay Dutt is one helluva actor. After starting his career playing the chocolate boy, Dutt ventured into action-packed roles. Khal Nayak (1993) brought out a different avatar in Dutt. Ironically, the film coincided with the beginning of his legal troubles. 

Dutt displayed his softer side in films like Saajan (1991) and Naam (1986) while he was equally good with comedy in films like All The Best (2009) and Jodi No 1 (2001). However, such is his physicality that he was often given darker characters, most famously Vaastav (1999), for which he bagged his maiden Filmfare award for Best Actor. After Vaastav, Sanjay Dutt’s career slid and he was close to being written off until he was bailed out by Rajkumar Hirani.

Hirani himself was an unknown commodity and there was no buzz around his film. But when it released, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) became the toast of the nation. The second film, Lagey Raho Munna Bhai (2006), brought the Gandhian out in Dutt. While everyone knows what transpired on the silver screen, eager beavers would want to know what impact this film had on the actor's life and career.

Like his life, Sanjay Dutt's career has had more than its share of ups and downs. He played the Khalnayak in Khal Nayak, which coincided with the start of his legal woes. Now that his legal troubles are behind him, Dutt will return to films with Khalnayak Returns, which is slated to release next year. One can only hope for Dutt's sake that the new film does not coincide with new problems.