Rajkumar Hirani Says He Didn’t Make Sanju To White Wash Sanjay Dutt’s Image

Mumbai: Rajkumar Hirani, the celebrated filmmaker behind Sanju, has finally addressed long-standing criticism that the biopic was an attempt to whitewash Sanjay Dutt’s image. The 2018 film, starring Ranbir Kapoor as Dutt, was a box office blockbuster but faced backlash for allegedly portraying the actor in a sympathetic light.

Speaking to Komal Nahta on Game Changers, Hirani clarified that the film was born out of an unexpected personal conversation with Dutt, rather than any pre-planned agenda to rehabilitate his public image.

Hirani shared that his inspiration for Sanju came after a personal encounter with Sanjay Dutt during his parole period. The director recalled, “Sanjay Dutt was out on parole. He came out and called me. He said, ‘What are you up to? Please come meet me.’ I went there. This was a phase where he was very much alone, and not a lot of people were visiting him. Despite having done two films with him (Munna Bhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munna Bhai), I wasn’t very close to him.”

However, that day was different. Hirani described how Dutt opened up about his struggles, his father Sunil Dutt, and his life experiences in a way he had never done before.
“This one day, I felt like he was venting out to me. He started to share his stories, began to talk about his father. That was it, and I went back home,” Hirani said, implying that the raw and candid nature of their conversation planted the seed for Sanju.

One of the major criticisms of Sanju was that it supposedly justified Dutt’s actions, including his illegal possession of firearms and his controversial personal life. However, Hirani strongly refuted these claims. “During an interview, I was asked if I made Sanju to whitewash Sanjay Dutt’s image. I asked, ‘What is your problem with him?’ The person said, ‘He kept a gun with him.’ I replied, ‘So, we showed him keeping the gun. We even showed how he called his friend to throw it in the water and destroy it.’”

He further emphasised that Sanju did not shy away from exposing Dutt’s flaws, "We showed that he was a drug addict.  We showed how he slept with his best friend’s girlfriend. We showed that he was a brat".

Hirani questioned why people still claimed that he had glorified Dutt when the film explicitly presented his mistakes. “What do you think I have not shown to whitewash his image? People developed a perception based on what they have read about him. Nobody knows him firsthand,” he argued. The perception for Sanjay Dutt definetley changed after Sanju.