“Why make a film where we lose our credibility?”: ‘Sanju’ makers on propaganda allegation

Sanjay Dutt’s life has been quite public right from an early stage. While being veteran actors Nargis and Sunil Dutt’s son brought him much attention as a star kid and teenager, the massive success of his debut with Rocky placed him in the league of Bollywood A-listers. Every detail of his life has been in the public eye, whether it’s his affairs, tryst with drugs and jail, or the court cases.

With his latest venture Sanju, filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani is bringing forth the story of Bollywood’s original bad boy on the silver screen. Hirani, who became enticed with Dutt’s life during the filming of Munnabhai MBBS, took almost three years to bring his dream project to life.

Several people were of the opinion that Hirani might attempt to clear Dutt’s image with the biopic, since the two have worked together in Munna Bhai series. However, in an interview with India Today, Sanju director Rajkumar Hirani and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra talked about how Sanju is not a propaganda film.

“If you look at the promo, Sanju has clearly said that he kept a gun, he did drugs and he talked about having so many girlfriends. In the journey of making this film, we were constantly asked why we are making this film. Will it be a propaganda film? This was constantly thrown at us. So the teaser was an effort to say that it is not.” Hirani said during the interview.

He added, “There is no reason for us to make a propaganda film. You don’t spend three years of your life doing something and destroying your career in the process.”

Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who has collaborated with Hirani for the 6^th time, said, “He (Hirani) is probably the most successful and able director in India. Why would we make a film where we lose our credibility that we have built over the years? We won’t sell ourselves.”

Ranbir Kapoor has played the role of Sanjay Dutt in the film. Sanju also stars Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Vicky Kaushal, Karishma Tanna and Jim Sarbh. The film is all set to hit the theatres on June 29.