Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta has died. Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit said Gupta died after suffering an injury to the head at home, calling his death untimely, and added that no further details were available yet. Gupta was known as a director, screenwriter and producer who made his mark with stylised crime dramas in Hindi cinema.
His career began with Aatish: Feel the Fire in 1994, but his breakthrough came with Kaante in 2002, which he directed and produced. The film starred Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Lucky Ali and Kumar Gaurav, and its slick action style became his trademark.
The Shootout films and Kaabil
Gupta produced Musafir in 2004 and Shootout at Lokhandwala in 2007, and returned to directing with Shootout at Wadala in 2013. He was also known for Zinda and Kaabil, films that kept his reputation for glossy, high-voltage storytelling alive across two decades of Hindi cinema.
A love story that survived a divorce
Gupta's personal life was as talked about as his films. He married designer Anu, also known as Anuradha Lekhi, on 18 August 1997 after a long courtship, and the two divorced after about six years together. They remarried in 2009 in a Hindu ceremony at a temple in Khar, choosing 3 June, the same date on which Amitabh Bachchan married Jaya Bhaduri in 1973. Anu had moved to Pune with her parents after the divorce, and Gupta later said he pursued her for five years and called her his soulmate, adding that his in-laws treated him like a son.
His wife, children and her own words
Gupta and Anu have two children together, son Shivansh Gupta, born in 2011, and daughter Dalai Gupta, born in 2013. In a 2024 interview, Anu spoke openly about the separation, saying it was both their fault equally, that she never believed affair rumours about him because she trusted him, and that the two never lost touch even during the divorce period, when she also spoke of lavish parties at their bungalow.
