Sanjay Dutt - "The Man with the Golden Heart"






General Facts about Sanjay Dutt

- At the beginning of his career Sanjay's name mostly was spelled "Sunjay Dutt". But after his drug rehabilitation, Sanjay consciously decided to draw a line under his past, and as "Sunjay" in his opinion inseparably was linked to his drug phase, he henceforth insisted on the spelling "Sanjay Dutt". (Some magazines like the Stardust, however, are still clinging to the spelling "Sunjay".)

- Usually Sanjay is called Sanju. His parents used to call him Sanju since his early childhood (Nargis also called him Chand). Many people, especially in the film industry, still call him Sanju Baba, according to his child-like soul. But since Sanjay after his father's death took the responsibilities as the man of the house, this name is slowly disappearing. On the other hand, the name Deadly Dutt remains unchanged (and rightfully so!). And nowadays many people, especially children, use to call him lovingly Munnabhai or to address him respectfully as Sanju Sir or as Sanjayji. In addition to this, his German fans (who call themselves "Sanjustanis") have given him titles like Mr Magnificent or Sanjeye - a tribute to his bright and soulful eyes.

- Sanjay's height is 6'1''. He has a mind-blowing physique - tall, muscular and endless long legs...
(And I would love to have a little chat with Suketu Mehta about his statement in his Maximum City book that Sanju is "built like a brontosaurus". *g*)

- Sanjay's eyes are brown, and so is his hair - as long as he doesn't make experiments with it. Nowadays his hair starts getting silver streaks - which definitely doesn't diminish his attractiveness.

- Sanjay has several large tattoos, among others on both shoulders (a dragon breathing fire/Lord Shiva), on his back (a Tibetan shloka) and on both forearms.

- Sanjay believes in different kinds of lucky charms and loves the number 9.

- Sanjay's zodiac sign is the leo. And in the Chinese horoscope he is a cute little pig.

- It often says that Sanjay is suffering from Insomnia. As I never heard this from him himself I don't know whether it's really insomnia or just a form of sleep disorder (which would be bad enough). During his term in prison, he developed a form of claustrophobia. He suffers from hypertension and (since 2007) from back problems, and he's said to hate highs. (But even here I don't know whether it is a real vertigo or just an unpleasant feeling.)





Sanjay's Concerns and Interests

- Sanjay loves music, especially rock, heavy metal and jazz, but even blues and soul. At school he had played percussions, now he's learning guitar, he is an excellent singer and loves playing DJ. He owns a piano, percussions and an e-guitar (Fender Stratocaster, Led Zeppelin Limited Edition). Adding to that, he is a terrific air guitar player, in such an extend that he even won a championship in the USA. His favourite musicians and bands include Walter Trout, Santana, Guns’n’Roses, Metallica, B B King, Albert Collins, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, The Doors, The Who and AC/DC.

More about Sanjay the singer and rock star please find here.

- Sanjay has a large collection of records, CDs and DVDs. From his own films, however, he only has a few chosen ones.

- Sanjay loves good food, no matter whether Indian, Chinese, Japanese or whatever, and loves to cook his food himself. Wonder whether he sometimes also cooks "Chicken Sanju Baba" - a special white biryani with a side dish named after him. (If anyone happens to have the recipe - I would love to get it!)
And obviously he shares his mother Nargis's weakness for paan.

- Sanjay works out regularly. He has his own gym where he spends several hours a day. Around 1990 he was the first actor in Hindi Cinema making a well-conditioned and muscular body his trade mark on the silver screen. Adding to that, he likes horse-riding, used to play squash extensively, did parasailing, and sometimes on holiday he plays golf, just for fun.

- In his youth, Sanjay had a faible for fire arms and loved going hunting. However, that is in the past.

- In the mid-1980's, Sanjay had dreamt of leaving India and becoming a rancher in the USA, a dream which until today never completely left him.

- Sanjay is a computer and technic freak.

- Sanjay loves designer clothes, designer sun glasses and designer watches. He is said to have a large collection of sun glasses and watches. He is known for his perfect style (even got some awards for it), and his fashion passion made him a costume designer for the film Musafir where he designed the look for Anil Kapoor, Aditya Pancholi, Mahesh Manjrekar and himself.

- Sanjay loves driving fast cars and motorbikes. Among others he owns a red Ferrari. Even the Honda Valkyrie he drove in his film Musafir is his own bike.

- Sanjay watches regularly the National Geographic and the History Channel on TV.

- Sanjay goes Batman: When the Filmfare 11/2005 asked, "Which cartoon character do you think you resemble?", Sanjay answered, "I guess I would be Batman because like him, I'd like to do away with injustice in society. And I've always been a champion for the underdog."

- Sanjay's vacation advice (Filmfare Travel 2004 and Filmfare Travel 2005): have a good time and just chill. Best in Goa.

- Sanjay's favourite love story is Casablanca: "I've lost count of the number of times I've seen Casablanca. The fact that both of them are willing to lay down their lives for each other gives me goose flesh. You can sense the love and the loss of that love in Humphrey Bogart's eyes when he says, 'Of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world, she walks into mine'." (Filmfare 9/2005)

- Questioned about his favourite book, Sanjay answered, "I just cannot explain what gripped me in Harold Robbins's A Stone for Danny Fisher, my favourite book." He's seen the film version but prefers the book, "Because it's so descriptive and expressive that it drives you into its adventure." (The Times of India, July 17, 2007)

- Sanjay's dream role is, as he often mentioned, Al Pacino's role in Scarface: "Al Pacino's my favourite. He's a super actor. I've made it a point to see all his films, he was especially brilliant in Scarface. Perhaps it's asking for the impossible since films like Scarface aren't made in India but if someone ever conceives a similar kind of role here, I'd grab it." (Filmfare 5/1994)

- Even though Sanjay renounced drugs many years ago, unfortunately he never was able to quit alcohol and nicotin...





"The Man with the Golden Heart"

- Sanjay's generosity is legendary in the film industry. More than once he spontaneously opened his wallet to give a loan to a technician or a spot worker in financial distress - without talking about interest or repayment. For a long time he completely forgot thereover to assure some reserves for himself. Only thanks to his friend Suniel Shetty's vigorous intervention, he was able to get his disastrous financial situation back in shape again. Today he pays more attention to who really needs his help and who just wants to presume his good nature. But he never ceased to help people in need whereever he can. Also his friends can rely on him. He loves to work with people he's comfortable with and often agrees to do films for friends without even asking for the script.

- Sanjay enjoys love and respect from nearly every member of the film industry, from his co-stars to the unit hands, and that's because he too treats them with love and respect (Shilpa Shetty once revealed that he addresses really everybody on the sets with -ji). In spite of his stardom, he always remained human and humble following his motto "do your job and don't mess around on the sets". Typically he hardly ever disappers into his van between two shots but seeks company of the technicians and unit hands, chats with them, tastes their home-cooked food and praises their wives' cookeries, and smokes (and even shares) his cigarettes with them. Patiently he listens to their needs and sorrows and helps them either with his own wallet (read e.g. "God of the lesser children"), by his influence on the trade unions or by simply refusing to continue shooting when he comes to know that a technician or a spot boy hasn't been paid his wages for weeks. The younger stars love him because he never tries to shorten their screentime or to outact them, but rather helps them as much as he can. He is commonly known as the "dost (friend) of the industry". (More about this issue please find here.)

- The advantage of having Sanjay as a co-star is that he has enough confidence in himself that he is never insecure or has any rivalry feelings ("there is enough place in the industry for everybody"). And right from the beginning of his career he always made it a point that he doesn't want to be a part of the rat race. He doesn't care about rankings, he just wants to make his mark. His favourite quote in this context is, "I'm not a number, I'm Sanjay Dutt".

- In spite of his love for speedy cars, Sanjay is everything else than overprotective when it comes to his own scooters. He often invites street children awestruckly crowding around his car to jump in and to drive around the block with him. And a journalist who once made admiring remarks about his BMW actually got Sanjay's spontaneous offer to drive the dream automatic himself... (You don't believe this? Search here for Qureshi's report!)

- Nevertheless Sanjay is often still referred to as the original Bad Boy of Bollywood - not only because of his many gangster roles but of course also because of his eventful life containing everything from drug and alcohol excesses and brawls to firearms, terror charges and prison...

- Sanjay is basically shy. Performances in public are therefore not his favourite disciplines, and if they are unevitable he usually shows a sort of awkwardness and taciturnity. The only place for him to overcome his shyness are the film sets; in front of the camera he does everything his director wants him to do. He just doesn't like live events on stages. So live performances with Sanjay are very rare. He was part of concert tours like "Wanted" 2000 and "Now Or Never 2" 2002, but appearances like the Munnabhai performance at the Sansui award function in 2004 are very rare jewels.

- For many younger actors Sanjay is idol, role-model and inspiration. Among the stars who openly confess that Sanjay is like an icon to them are Salman Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Arjun Rampal, John Abraham, Upen Patel and Imran Khan.

- Suniel Shetty, Bunty Walia, Ajay Arora, Ajay Marwah, Nitin Manmohan, Ajay Devgan, Amrita Singh, Arshad Warsi, Viveik Oberoi, Aamir Khan, Fardeen Khan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Salman Khan with his family are counting among Sanjay's closest friends. Abhishek Bachchan loves him as his elder brother (calling him "Sanju Sir“) while his father Amitabh Bachchan refers to Sanjay as "a great and very loyal friend". Like Dilip Kumar and Shatrughan Sinha, whom Sanjay respects very much, Amitabh Bachchan has been a friend to the Dutt family for many years, and Sanjay declares him to be his idol as an actor: "I respect Amitji so much that I automatically stand up when I talk to him on the phone."






Sanjay's Ads and Business

- Since the beginning of his career Sanjay is continuously doing ads for many different items and brands including Marco Ricci Italy shoes & accessoires, Denim, Bagpiper Whiskey, bicycles, hair-care products (Yogiraj Thanda Tel), Rupa underwear and chicken meat. "I've always been open to the idea of endorsing products. But I like to be careful about the products I endorse because I don't believe in misleading my fans. Apart from the fact that they bring in good money, ads also have a huge reach. When you're on TV, it's an in-your-face presence. In today's times, it's all about marketing yourself!" (Filmfare 9/2005). In 2005, Sanjay became the brand ambassador for iron bars made by Elegant (have a look on an advertising board in West Bengal) and did an advertising spot which was also shown in Goutam Ghose's film Yatra (2007). In 2008, Sanjay did a TV ad for SABMiller’s premium beer brand Haywards 5000 together with Suniel Shetty. He was also appointed Brand Ambassador of Indian Boxing.

- Since 2000, Sanjay is in the film production business, too. Here you can find information about the production banners he was and is involved in. Former production plans like Jungle and Chakra (Mumbai Talking Pictures) were stalled already in the planning phase.

- In July 2003, Sanjay announced in a Filmfare interview that he and his friend Suniel Shetty would start a chain of restaurants called SOS (Suniel aur Sanjay). The first restaurant in Hyderabad was indeed opened but I don't know for sure whether it still exists. In an article about Suniel Shetty from 2005, I couldn't find anything about SOS; concerning his business activities, Suniel just said, "With Sanju, I've got three Shades outlets selling high end sunglasses". So I suppose the restaurant plans were never realized, especially as Sanjay never mentioned them again after that interview - at least in none of the many interviews I've read. The same fate obviously happened with a chain of event restaurants called Indian Talkies which some BW stars, among them Sanjay, wanted to start in the end of the 90's.

- On October 14, 2004 Sanjay launched his company SON (Son Of Nargis). SON was to undertake production and marketing, create web sites for film stars and do stage shows. But frankly said I have no idea what happened with this company.


Why we love Sanjay Dutt
(Filmfare 12/2006)

- Because he's the Phoenix.
- He epitomises the "Survival of the fittest".
- Lage Raho Munna Bhai.



Sanjay Dutt in September 2007