Sanjay Dutt’s Untold Tale How Mahesh Bhatt Made Him A Star!

The dynamic Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt will be celebrating his 55 birthday at Yerawada prison in Pune. While the film industry is desperately yearning Sanju Baba’s (Sanjay Dutt fondly called) early release from the jail, Raaga.Com wishes the actor birthday greeting and hope he soon begins shooting and bounces back on silver screen. 

Though Sanjay made his debut with Sunil Dutt’s home production ROCKY, yet it was Mahesh Bhatt’s NAAM, that established Sanjay Dutt as an actor to reckon. 

Mahesh Bhatt, in an interview recalled how it was a daunting task to extract the actor in Sanjay Dutt, who was a victim of drugs and was booted out by the film industry in his earlier movies as a wooden actor. 

Mahesh Bhatt remembers, “After Sunil Dutt Sahab had brought out Sanju Baba of his drug addiction by treatment in the U.S. Sanjay was a changed man but unfortunately the film industry had written him off as a flop actor and there were no takers for him!” 

He adds, “Readers would be surprised to know that when I decided to take up the direction of NAAM, which was produced by Rajendra Kumar, film industry mocked at me for taking a flop actor. In fact even Sunil Dutt, had reservation about me as a director.” He added, “Dutt Sahab was over protective of his son and did not wish to let Sanjay work in outside banner. But I had seen a fire in Sanjay and I knew I could bring out a good actor in Sanjay.” 

He continues, “After few meetings Sunil Dutt sahab was convinced and he gave the green signal. Now it was for me to take the challenge. I knew a little mentoring and a little structural support from the script were all it would take to get an effective performance out of him. Thus Salim Khan’s (of Salim Javed) excellent script helped me in polishing the rough edges of Sanjay Dutt. As for Sanju, he gave everything to the film - he was single-minded, as focused as a horse with blinkers, he just did not see anything beyond the movie. The result the movie was a huge hit. It celebrated golden jubilee and Sanjay became a Star!”