Product Code Database
Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian people actor and film producer who works primarily in Hindi cinema, and has also appeared in Telugu cinema, Kannada cinema, Tamil cinema, Marathi language and Punjabi cinema films. He has acted in over 135 films. Known for his versatile roles, style, and intensity, he has often portrayed flawed heroes on screen. Dutt has received awards such as two Filmfare Awards, three Screen Awards and a Global Indian Film Award.
Part of the Dutt family, he is the son of actor-politicians Sunil Dutt and Nargis. Dutt made his acting debut with Rocky (1981), directed by his father. A career slump followed, with exceptions being Vidhaata (1982), Naam (1986) and Thanedaar (1990). He later starred in films such as Saajan (1991) and Sadak (1991), and appeared in commercially successful releases including Adharm (1992), Gumrah (1993), Khalnayak (1993), (1999), Haseena Maan Jaayegi (1999), (1999), Jodi No. 1 (2001), Munna Bhai MBBS (2003), and Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006); his performance in Vaastav: The Reality won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
Since 2000, he's done a series of commercially successful films including Mission Kashmir (2000), Kurukshetra (2000), Kaante (2002), Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003), Dus (2005), Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007), Dhamaal (2007), (2009), Double Dhamaal (2011), Agneepath (2012), Son of Sardaar (2012), and PK (2014). After a career decline, Dutt expanded into South Indian cinema, playing the main antagonist in the Kannada cinema (2022)—the fifth highest-grossing Indian film and the Tamil Cinema Leo (2023)—the 22nd highest-grossing Indian film. He also achieved success playing supporting roles in the Hindi films Housefull 5 and Dhurandhar, with the latter emerging as his highest grossing film.
In April 1993, Dutt was arrested under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and the Arms Act, and was later convicted under the Arms Act for possession of illegal weapons, including AK-56 rifles, procured from others accused in the 1993 Bombay bombings. He was sentenced to five years in prison, and after periods of bail, completed his sentence in 2016. Dutt's life has been the subject of considerable media coverage in India, and in 2018, Sanju, a biopic based on his life, starring Ranbir Kapoor as Dutt; the film was one of the highest-grossers of Indian cinema.
Born to a Hindu father and a Muslim mother, Dutt's ancestry through his father and maternal grandfather traces back to the Rawalpindi Division of western Punjab (in present-day Pakistan), with his paternal village being Khurd in Jhelum District. Dutt is the maternal grandson of Jaddanbai from Benares, who came from a family of Tawaif (courtesans) with ancestral links to the Mughal court, and worked as a director, producer, actress, also being among the earliest female music composers in Hindi cinema. Through Jaddanbai, Dutt is the nephew of character actor Anwar Hussain, Nargis's half-brother. Through his father, Dutt belongs to the Hussaini Brahmin community, which reveres Imam Hussain and is traditionally said to have participated in the battle of Karbala; the community's syncretist identity as "half-Hindu and half-Muslim" is reported to have made the them a target during the 1947 partition of India riots. Dutt has two sisters, Priya Dutt, a politician, and Namrata Dutt, who is married to Kumar Gaurav, the son of actor Rajendra Kumar.
Dutt's given name was chosen by crowdsourcing via the Urdu-language film magazine Shama. His mother died in 1981, shortly before the premiere of his debut film; her death has been cited in accounts of the onset of his drug use. Dutt made his acting debut as a child, playing a qawali singer in his father's film Reshma Aur Shera (1971).
The film Naam (1986) is described by commentators as a turning point in Dutt's career and was a critical and commercial success. During the late 1980s, he appeared in box-office hits including Imaandaar, Inaam Dus Hazaar (1987), Jeete Hain Shaan Se (1988), Mardon Wali Baat (1988), Ilaaka (1989), Hum Bhi Insaan Hain (1989), Kanoon Apna Apna (1989), and Taaqatwar (1989) .
His performances in Kabzaa (1988) and J. P. Dutta's Hathyar (1989) were both well received by critics; trade sources classify both films as having average box-office returns. In the same period, he appeared in multi-starrer projects with actors including Govinda, Mithun, Dharmendra, Jackie Shroff, and Sunny Deol.
The Hindu wrote that "Dutt's earlier films (like Naam and Sadak) got him a lot of favourable attention", and " Saajan established Dutt as the conventional soft hero." Saajan was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1991, and Sadak ranked fifth. Khalnayak was the second-highest grossing film of 1993. This was followed by another box office success Gumrah, this was Dutt's second consecutive hit that year.
Dutt's first film after his 1993 arrest was Daud (1997); trade sources describe its box-office results as average. He followed this with Dushman (1998) which performed well commercially.
As the decade went on, he continued to play lead roles in critical and commercial successes such as Jodi No.1 (2001), Pitaah (2002) and Kaante (2002), which earned him his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The sequel of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Lage Raho Munna Bhai was released on 1 September 2006, for which Dutt received a number of awards, along with an award from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his work in the Munna Bhai series. NDTV India counted the character Munna Bhai as one of top 20 fictional characters in Bollywood. Indian cinema@100: Bollywood's 20 best characters – NDTV . NDTV. Retrieved 14 July 2014 Dutt earned his fifth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film.
In January 2008, the Indian film Institute Filmfare listed 12 films featuring Dutt in its list of the top 100 highest-grossing movies of all time. In its May 2013 edition "100 years of Indian cinema", Filmfare listed three films featuring Dutt in its top 20 list of highest-grossing Hindi films of all time, adjusted for inflation these films were Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Khalnayak and Saajan. Later, Dutt starred in other successful movies like Dhamaal (2007), Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007), (2009), Double Dhamaal (2011), Son of Sardaar (2012) Agneepath (2012) and PK (2014).
In 2017, following his return to prison in 2013 to serve the remainder of his sentence and his release in 2016, Dutt appeared as the lead in Bhoomi, directed by Omung Kumar. In 2018, he starred in Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3. On 29 June 2018, his biopic Sanju released in which he made a special appearance. He then produced and starred in Prassthanam, which released on 20 September 2019.
Due to the COVID pandemic, Dutt then had four OTT releases. First was Sadak 2, a sequel to his 1991 film Sadak, co starring Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur. The trailer for the film became the most disliked trailer of all time, with fans critical of nepotism following the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. The film was universally panned and some claimed it to be one of the worst films in Dutt's career. Then came Netflix release Torbaaz, an action thriller set in Afghanistan. His 2021 release , which featured an ensemble cast consisting of Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha and Nora Fatehi, also received negative reviews. However, in 2022, Dutt appeared in Toolsidas Junior, a sports drama which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
Also in 2022, Dutt made his debut in Kannada cinema as Adheera, the main antagonist in , the sequel to the blockbuster Kannada film, . The movie was a financial success. However, his other 2022 theatrical releases were financial flops - the period epic Shamshera, directed by Karan Malhotra and starring Ranbir Kapoor, in which he again played a key antagonist, and Samrat Prithviraj alongside Akshay Kumar.
In 2023, Dutt performed a cameo in Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jawan and played a key antagonist in Lokesh Kanagaraj's Leo (2023) alongside Vijay, making his debut in Tamil cinema. Both were huge financial successes. In 2024, he reunited with Raveena Tandon in the digital film Ghudchadi and made his Telugu cinema debut with Puri Jagannadh's Double iSmart, which was a box office debacle. He appeared in Housefull 5 in 2025 as Chief Inspector Baba. The film was a commercial success. In the same year, he starred in Baaghi 4 alongside Tiger Shroff, playing the main antagonist. Critics noted that Dutt's role was too brief for him to make an impact. The film was poorly received and underperformed commercially. His last released of 2025 was the action-thriller Dhurandhar, where he played a supporting role and which went on to become the highest grossing Indian film of 2025 and one of the highest grossing Hindi films of all time. Dutt next appeared in the Telugu film The Raja Saab, which received negative reviews.
Dutt is next set to appear in, Baap, KD - The Devil, an untitled film with Arshad Warsi, and his production The Virgin Tree. He will also star in the big-budget international film The Good Maharaja.
Dutt's second marriage was to air-hostess-turned-model Rhea Pillai on 14 February 1998. The divorce finalised in 2008. Dutt married Manyata Dutt (born Dilnawaz Sheikh) first registered in Goa in 2008 and then, in a Hindu ceremony in Mumbai, after two years of dating. On 21 October 2010, he became a father to twins, a boy and a girl.
In more recent years, Dutt has connected more with Hinduism and became a devotee of Shiva. In January 2024, he performed the pinda dana, a Hindu ritual that involves paying homage to ancestors, for his deceased parents.
Dutt has also acknowledged a long history with Tobacco smoking, including anecdotes about smoking in difficult personal moments.
On 19 April 1993, after initial reporting by Baljeet Parmar on Dutt's possession of the AK-56, he was arrested under the provisions of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). Dutt was granted bail by the Supreme Court of India on 5 May 1993; however, on 4 July 1994 his bail was cancelled and he was re-arrested. On 16 October 1995 he was granted bail. Abdul Qayyum Abdul Karim Shaikh, who was thought to be a close aide of the terrorists' ringleader, Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested. Dutt had given Qayuum's name to the police when confessing to arms possession, saying that in September 1992 he had bought a pistol from Qayuum in Dubai. His arrest coincided with the release of his film, Khal Nayak, in which he played a wanted criminal. The film's major success was in part due to Dutt's off-screen legal controversy.
On 31 July 2007, Dutt was cleared of the charges relating to the Mumbai blast; however, the TADA court sentenced Dutt to six years' rigorous imprisonment under Arms act for illegal possession of weapons. According to The Guardian, "The actor claimed he feared for his life after the notorious 'Black Friday' bombings, which were allegedly staged by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated mafia in retaliation for deadly Hindu-Muslim clashes a few months earlier. But the judge rejected this defence and also refused bail." Dutt was returned to at the Arthur Road Jail and soon after moved to the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune. Dutt appealed against the sentence and was granted interim bail on 20 August 2007 until such time as the TADA court provided him with a copy of its judgement. On 22 October 2007 Dutt was back in jail but again applied for bail. On 27 November 2007, Dutt was granted bail by the Supreme Court. On 21 March 2013 the Supreme Court upheld the verdict but shortened the sentence to five years' imprisonment. Dutt was given a month to surrender before the authorities.
Dutt has said that "I am not a politician but I belong to a political family." He was persuaded by a close friend to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as a candidate for the Samajwadi Party, but withdrew when the court refused to suspend his conviction. He was then appointed General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party, leaving that post in December 2010. In March 2013 the Supreme Court upheld Dutt's five-year sentence, 18 months of which he already spent in jail during the trial. He was given four weeks to surrender to the authorities, the court having refused to release him on probation due to the severity of the offence.
On 10 May, the Supreme Court rejected Dutt's review petition for the reconsideration of his conviction and asked him to surrender on the stipulated date. on 14 May, Dutt withdrew the mercy plea and surrendered to the Mumbai Police on 16 May 2013. Just before the surrender, the Mumbai jail authority got an anonymous letter threatening Dutt's life. Dutt filed an appeal to allow him to surrender before entering Yerwada Central Jail. Later, Dutt withdrew this request too. He was paroled from 21 December 2013. The parole was extended three times until March 2014, raising concern in Bombay High Court and a proposal from the Government of Maharashtra to amend the law of parole. He returned to Yerwada Central Jail after his parole ended. Dutt was out on a two weeks' furlough granted by the Yerwada Central Jail authorities on 24 December. He was subsequently incarcerated in Yerwada Central Jail, to complete his jail term. He was released from there on 25 February 2016 after serving his sentence.
One of the most successful actors of the 1990s and 2000s, Dutt appeared in Box Office Indias "Top Actors" list three times from 1991 to 1993. He topped the list twice in 1992 and 1993.
In 2022, he placed in Outlook Indias "75 Best Bollywood Actors" list.
|
|
