Sanjay Dutt (left) and Ranbir Kapoor on the sets of Sanju, the biopic of Dutt, in Mumbai on Thursday night. Ranbir plays Sanjay Dutt in the film, which also features Paresh Rawal as Sunil Dutt, Sonam Kapoor as a girlfriend of Sanjay, Dia Mirza as wife Manyata Dutt, Manisha Koirala as mother Nargis, and Vicky Kaushal as Sanjay’s friend. 

At the trailer launch on Wednesday, Paresh Rawal revealed that he had once received a birthday letter from Sunil Dutt in 2005 out of the blue and he still has it. “Usually, we discard birthday letters after a while but that particular letter stayed in my drawer. This is a wonderful connection. I think I was meant to play Dutt sahab’s role,” Rawal said. 

Manisha said that when her film Bombay had released in 1995, Sunil Dutt had sent her a letter saying “You remind me of Nargis Duttji”. 

“I really take that as a huge compliment,” she said. 

The Rajkumar Hirani-directed film releases on June 29. 

Picture by Yogen Shah, text by PTI