New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece Panchajanya has criticised the Sanjay Dutt biopic Sanju, saying it glorifies an actor who harboured many vices and had connections with religious extremists and the underworld.

An article in Panchajanya has recalled how Sanjay took drugs and kept arms at his home, went to jail and was linked to 308 women. It claims he knew about the 1993 Bombay blasts conspiracy, points to his three marriages and strained relations with his daughter, and accuses him of apathy towards his first wife while she battled cancer.

"Do these traits make for a glorious hero? Is Bollywood trying to present him as an idol?" the article asked.

Ironically, senior Union minister and Sangh favourite Nitin Gadkari had a few days ago advised people to watch Sanju to see how an irresponsible media can destroy the lives of good people.

"Media ke upar sabse achchha picture aaya hai, Sanju, usey dekh lo (The best film on the media has arrived - Sanju - go watch it)," Gadkari had said in an interview to news portal Firstpost.

Gadkari, who had virtually grown up at the Sangh headquarters in Nagpur, went on: "How this media finished people, how it destroyed good people.... How reports are published with a question mark.... I'm not anti-media, you have the right to publish wrong reports too. But you have no right to ruin somebody's life.

"There was one mard (man) Balasaheb Thackeray who used to say at that time, 'I too know the entire story - that his mistake was only that when the situation was bad, some of his friends gave him an AK-47 and he kept it in his home'. He was punished for this mistake.

"But the Supreme Court said he is not a terrorist, he didn't have any relationship with the terrorists. But his life was ruined. There are many people about whom so much is written without any basis."

The Panchajanya article slammed the director, Rajkumar Hirani, saying his previous film, PK, was "anti-Hindu".

"The same director was involved in the film PK, which made fun of the Hindu faith," it said, and frowned on Bollywood's "obsession" with Muslim gangsters.

"This is not the first time that Bollywood has made a film with underworld characters. In the past few years, we have had films on Dawood Ibrahim, his sister Haseena, Chhota Rajan, Arun Gawli, Gujarat's Abdul. Social media is abuzz with the question whether this is happening at someone's instance. Has money from the Gulf been used?"

Sanju has been a huge hit, suggesting that the public's perception of Sanjay is not too hostile.