Director Sanjay Gupta dies after fall in bathroom at his home

Director Sanjay Gupta, who made films such as Kaante, Kaabil, Shootout at Lokhandwala and Aatish: Feel the Fire, has died. The Hindi film industry is in mourning.

According to information available, Gupta slipped and fell in the bathroom of his home on the night of 30 October. He suffered a deep head injury and lost consciousness. No one in the house realised until morning that he was lying in the bathroom. He died because he did not get treatment in time. Police have conducted a preliminary inquiry, which found nothing suspicious.

Gupta had given a break, early in their careers, to many actors who have since become big stars of the industry. He made nine films with actor Sanjay Dutt. His first film was Aatish: Feel the Fire. He went on to direct Khauff (2000), Jung (2000), Kaante (2002), Musafir (2004) and Zinda (2006). Of these, Kaante was a big hit. The film starred Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar and Sanjay Dutt in the main roles.

A few months ago, in an interview to Hussain Zaidi, Gupta recounted an incident from 1992. He was then shooting Aatish: Feel the Fire, which starred Sanjay Dutt, Karisma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon in the main roles. One day a call came to his home. The caller said he was Nana. Gupta did not understand who Nana was. It later emerged that the call was from Chhota Rajan. Chhota Rajan abused him heavily over the phone, and Gupta was badly shaken. He immediately called Sanjay Dutt and told him everything. Dutt then sent his father Sunil Dutt's car and had Gupta taken out of his house safely.

In 2007, Gupta and Sanjay Dutt together started a production company called White Feather Films. The company made Shootout at Wadala. But the two fell out over the payment of technicians. The distance between them grew, they stopped talking, and they also ended their business relationship. Gupta later said in an interview that some people had created a misunderstanding between the two, and that this was why it all happened.

After the falling-out, some people in the industry spread a rumour that Sanjay Dutt had warned everyone not to work in Gupta's films. As a result, Gupta had no work for about three years and remained unemployed. There was a time when he even thought of leaving Bollywood to run his own hotel in Khandala. The two remained estranged for four years. Then in 2012, at Amitabh Bachchan's birthday party, Gupta was talking to John Abraham when Sanjay Dutt called out to him himself and ended the quarrel. The two embraced each other.