Will ‘Sanju’ be an accurate depiction of Sanjay Dutt’s life?

Sanjay Dutt was upset with the biography that Yasser Usman is writing and hadsent a legal notice to both the author and the publishing house Juggernaut Books. Dutt was extremely upset about the excerpts that are being used in the biography and states that they are not accurate. Sanjay Dutt has stated that Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy has hurt the sentiments of him and his family and a lot of information that the excerpt provide is fictional. To this Juggernaut had agreed on not publishing any more excerpts but is still going ahead with the biography.

Read More: Sanjay Dutt sends a legal notice to this Publisher. Find out why?

Though with the above incident, the notion would be that Dutt might oppose ‘Sanju’ the biopic directed by Rajkumar Hirani, but no opposition or disagreement has been disclosed. Ranbir Kapoor will play the role of Dutt in the film.

Sanjay Dutt has had some unflattering moments in his life, and the question is if the film will be able to properly represent his ups and downs. These ups and downs may have had major media speculation when they were happening but the timeline of events isn’t too clear. The timeline of Sanjay Dutt in the Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy Traces is as follows-

Childhood
Sanjay in his earlier days could have been called an adorable brat, as even at the age of 6 he was allowed to smoke by his further in the hope that the coughing will make him give up smoking forever, but much to his father’s demise he finished that cigarette like a pro. Due to his brattish ways he was sent to a boarding school, his brat ways remained dormant for the first few years but eventually he made friends and came to be known as ‘The Big Bully’.

Substance Abuse
‘Which ordinary man cuts the neck of a monitor lizard (ghorpad) and drinks it blood and then jogs for one hour to sweat out the toxic effect only because Shakti Kapoor challenged him to do so?’ –Manoj, Sanjay Dutt’s Makeup Man Dutt has agreed that he did do whatever drugs the book has incorporated and has also said that he preferred Cocaine and Heroin. His mother Nargis was always in denial of his son’s addiction and even on her funeral Dutt was in a haze.

First Marriage
Just before he met his first wife Richa Sharma, he was an avid hunter and on 22 nd May 1982 he opened fire with his .22 Bore Rifle and shattered some windows of his Pali Hill Mansion. He was also a possessive boyfriend who was rumoured to have had series of relationships with Rati Agnihotri and Kimi Katkar. He was dating Tina Munim and with the allegations of her romoured fling with Rajesh Khanna, Dutt confronted him.

After he visited rehab he met his first wife Richa Sharma but within a few years she started battling cancer. For her treatment she had to exit Mumbai for almost 3 years and during that Dutt was working very closely with Madhuri Dixit and the distance between him and Richa grew. Eventually they filed for divorced and
he had started seeing Dixit but during that time Richa’s cancer came back and that led to bad press for Dutt.

Mumbai Blasts and Second Marriage
In the 1993 blasts where 257 people were killed Dutt was arrested under the feared Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) (Prevention Act) for possessing the illegal AK-56 rifle. This connected him to the underworld and Dawood Ibrahim to which he agreed. It said to have broken his father’s heart. He was arrested and then released on bail in May 1993 after which he made huge successes like Khalnayak, Sahibaan and Gumraah. He also met Rhea Pillai during this time along with fighting the custody battle of his daughter Trishala. Richa Sharma died as his wife in 1996 and he married Rhea in February 1998. But before this he was again in jail for 18 months as the bail wasn’t provided to him due to the strained relationship of his father and the then CM Sharad Pawar. It was Bal Thakeray who led him out of his isolation in jail.

Then again in 2000 the CBI tapped his phone and recorded the conversation he had with Dawood’s right-hand man Chhota Shakeel, and yet again trouble crept in.

Meeting Manyata
Dutt’s marriage with Rhea Pillai was almost over in 2005 after his father’s death. They divorced in 2008. He then met Dilnawaz Shiekh now Manyata who took control over his life. This also spurred a controversy between Sanjay and his sister Priya Dutt who said, ‘He is far too busy with films to find the time for politics
. . . She [Manyata] manipulated my brother into this situation to further her own ambitions.’

Dutt had always discouraged all his wives from acting and even his daughter. Dutt kept making rounds of jail and finally when he was released in 2016 he has now stated that an official biopic of him is on its way.