Mumbai, Nov 1 (IANS) The late filmmaker Sanjay Gupta, who recently passed away, once spoke about his brush with organised crime.
An old clip of the filmmaker talking to author S. Hussain Zaidi has resurfaced on the Internet, and it shows the director recollecting how he was threatened by dreaded gangster Chhota Rajan.
He said, “I picked up the phone. The person from the other side said, ‘How long have I been calling?’. I said, ‘Who are you?’. He said, ‘I'm Nana’. I said, ‘Who's Nana?’. He replied, ‘I'm Chhota Rajan’. I thought Ravi Diwan was joking with me. Why the hell will Chhota Rajan call me? So I said, ‘I'm Bada Rajan. Tell me, what is it?’ Then he started abusing me. Later, I got to know, and of course through your books also, that Bada Rajan was his mentor. And his death had really traumatized him. He really loved him, respected him. Anyway, he started abusing me. I just hung up”.
He further mentioned, “I was like, ‘S***, is this the real thing?’. I immediately called Sanjay Dutt. Sanju himself had come out on bail. And I said, ‘Sanju, the thing is, get me out of the house right now because they're saying that the boys have come in a taxi outside’. So Sanjay Dutt sent Sunil Dutt's official MP's car with a jeep to my house. And my house was on the ground floor. So I came inside the building. And he opened the back door. I dived into the car, shut the door”.
He went on, “We drove out. I came to Sanju's house. I said, ‘Sanju, what do I do?’ He said, ‘What can you do? What can I do because I'm myself in trouble’. Now we didn't understand anything there. And the phone rang. I picked up the phone. Aditya Pancholi was on the line. And he said, he was coming there. He came and hugged me and said, ‘I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry. It's all my mistake’. So I him how it was his mistake. He said, ‘No, last night I was with a friend of mine. I was drinking with him. And I told him that my role in ‘Ram Shastra’ is not that good. If only I can put some pressure on Sanjay Gupta to make my role better. I said, ‘Did you speak?’. He said, ‘No, no, I didn't speak to him. Somehow it was communicated to him’. So I said, you have put me into this problem, now get me out of this problem. So then somehow something of call was organized”.
“And I said, ‘Sir, I'm extremely sorry. So he said, ‘It’s alright. You're very good. We know that. Do one thing, make Aditya Pancholi's role a little better’. I said, ‘Sir, the role is good’. He said, ‘No, no, do a little more. Do whatever you can. Rest, no tension from my side’”, he added.
Sanjay Gupta passed away on Saturday, leaving the entire industry in a state of shock. His last rites were held at Pawan Hans Crematorium. His final journey was attended by Abhishek Bachchan, Rakesh Roshan, Fardeen Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajat Bedi, Ashoke Pandit, Milap Zaveri, Rohit Roy, Ronit Roy, Gulshan Grover, along with several others from the fraternity.
--IANS
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