Sunny Deol, Abhishek Bachchan, Suniel Shetty celebrate JP Dutta’s 70th birthday

Veteran filmmaker JP Dutta turned 70 last week on 3 October and his landmark birthday was brought in style with a celebratory party in Jaipur, Rajasthan attended by industry friends and his family.

His daughter Nidhi and wife Bindiya Goswami organised a surprise party for him at a heritage property in Jaipur, a favourite city for the filmmaker to shoot in. The two-day celebration was attended by former collaborators like Abhishek Bachchan, Sunny Deol, Randhir Kapoor, Roopkumar and wife Sonali Rathod, Suneil Shetty and his Mana Shetty.

His musical collaborators from Border (1997), singer Sonu Nigam, lyricist Javed Akhtar and composer Anu Malik, were also present as Nigam sang a few of the memorable numbers from the war film.

His daughter Nidhi said of the party, “I cannot even put it into words how special a birthday it was and it was only possible because each and every one of the people present made time to come and celebrate with us. From Daboo uncle [Randhir Kapoor], who was my father's boss when he was an assistant to Javed sahab who is the most senior member at JP Films, to the two pillars of JP Films - Suniel uncle and Sunny uncle and of course, my brother and father's first baby Abhishek [Bachchan].”

“Sonu [Nigam] honoured us with the blessing of his voice and all the rest who were there are much more than family to us. All of them came and made sure dad had the best day of his life and the warmth and love flowing in that room is something none of us will ever forget,” she added.

Dutta's last film as director was Paltan (2018) which revolved around the 1967 Nathu La and Cho La clashes after 1962 Sino-Indian war.