When the idea for a movie based on the life of Sanjay Dutt was first born in the mind of Rajkumar Hirani, he should have anticipated that it would be a delicate subject to tell. It was after Sanjay opened up about his life to him casually that Hirani had realised that there was a movie
in it. And then Sanjay’s permission had been sought and it was given.
But the man is the true picture of a whimsical, somewhat immature star and so there was also going to be a question mark on whether Sanjay would develop cold feet, given that his life has lots of grey areas. There was nothing to prevent him from demanding that the movie not be made once shooting started and given Hirani’s longstanding relationship with Sanjay it would have been difficult to not oblige.
Thankfully, Sanjay has so far not indicated that he has any issue. Though he did mention in an interview that Ranbir Kapoor, who plays the lead role in the movie, had been trying desperately to spend some time with Sanjay to get into the character and he had been avoiding him. That however, is not a deal breaker.
But there is another person who is said to be very concerned that such a movie is being made. Madhuri Dixit had in the early 1990s a brief relationship with Sanjay. It was said to have broken up, or rather Madhuri called it off, when Sanjay had been sent to jail for illegally storing arms during the communal riots that had happened then.
As an actress who had one of the cleanest images in the industry, untouched by scandals, her relationship with Sanjay was the only departure from that norm. It was said that after his jailing, she immediately severed all contact. There were whispers that Sanjay had never quite forgiven her. Madhuri is said to be keen on not including her character in his biopic.
According to some gossip reports, she had even got in touch with Hirani to make the request. In public however, she maintains that it does not bother her. She has not even acknowledged ever that there was such a relationship. To one tabloid reporter, who asked her about being featured in the biopic, she said that it was a redundant topic and that while she does not know where these reports of her anxiety are emanating from, she is not at all bothered.