It is quite well known that Rajkumar Hirani has made some of the finest films in Bollywood, both in terms of entertainment and messages. His works like the Munnabhai series, PK etc., have impressed the audience, critics and made a good sum at the box office. His camaraderie with Vidhu Vinod Chopra has worked wonders too!
He is back this time with something new for the audience. The man who believes in working on films with a message is all set to present his biopic on Sanjay Dutt. The film titled Sanju has Ranbir Kapoor in the titular role along with the stellar cast.
At the beginning of the interaction, he chose to discuss the subject, where he said, “My first reaction towards making Sanju was quite different. His life has been dark, and showcasing such stories is not in my territory. When I met him, he (Sanjay Dutt) was out from the jail, on parole. I had the curiosity to know what happened there inside, between those walls. He told me about making paper bags, his communication with others etc., and I was instantly fascinated. Little did I know, he called me next day again and continued sharing his experience and journey. It was as though he was venting out and wanted to share all this with someone. Both of us have only shared a professional relationship and never spoke much about the past. But when he started sharing his story, it hit me and I felt he was sharing the truth. To be honest, he has no personal agenda and was talking openly about it. I kept on hearing the truth and this continued for 25 days. Alike other filmmakers, I’m also greedy for content and keen on working on script out of anything that I find interesting. He was giving me a lot of information, and I started visualizing it as scenes. Completely out of our personal greed I thought this could be made into a film. Once we started working on the film is where we thought that we have taken up a big challenge of telling a story of someone who is not an achiever. But there was something special and interesting about his narration.”
Hirani has worked in this film with his close friend Abhijat. The film is based on Sanjay Dutt’s life where the makers have chosen some aspects which the world should know. Sanjay Dutt’s life, as we all have read, has been a rocky road. The actor has been involved in drugs, arms and convicted for the same. Talking about choosing the subjects to showcase, he said, “You can’t show a full journey. It is always necessary to show the important parts of life. In this case, we thought the story related to the gun and the drug was the most relevant. I know it was necessary to leave the rest. There were sections which I know he has worked hard to get rid of, and even today he makes sure he helps others to get rid of those habits because he has seen the dark side of life.”
Ace actor Ranbir Kapoor plays the titular role. Ever since the release of the trailer, Ranbir has been praised for perfectly justifying the character. As an actor playing another, he has the responsibility of portraying Sanjay Dutt to his best. The audience has loved him so far, and this has raised the anticipation for many across the world. Talking about casting Ranbir, Hirani said, “I believe casting should never be done keeping one’s career graph in mind. It should be based only on the capabilities. For Sanju, I wanted a young actor who could play 21 and 55, and so I looked at someone who was in the 30s. Ranbir Kapoor was the first thought in my mind. He is also a star kid, knows the pressure of such a life and he has personally spent time with Sanjay Dutt, besides the film. The struggle was to match him with Sanjay Dutt’s looks in the past. I sent him a text and he guessed correctly that it was Sanju biopic. I convinced him to meet. He heard it and was surprised so much that he told a yes. We tried some looks, opted for prosthetics and went through a lot of struggle to ace the looks. But slowly, everything fell into place. One fine day, I found that one of the looks matched to the best. He worked out a lot to keep the looks as closely related as possible. We have seen Sanjay Dutt and it was necessary to match the look. We had to keep the public perception in mind. It is fine if we do not match the look of someone the audience does not know much. But Sanjay Dutt is very popular, and so keeping the look in mind with a fine balance was important. We also kept the mannerism, diction, modulation etc. with the right balance. We wanted people to feel Ranbir playing Sanjay Dutt, and not ape him completely."
Sanju, the biopic, also has Dia Mirza, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Anushka Sharma, and Vicky Kaushal in the lead roles. The film is all set for the release on June 29, 2018.
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