Sanjay Dutt had served a jail term in 2013 for illegal possession of arms in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Despite working in only two films together, Sanjay Dutt and Apoorva Lakhia share a strong bond.
Despite working in only two films, Sanjay Dutt and Apoorva Lakhia share a strong bond, according to the filmmaker. Apoorva said that Sanjay had shown great commitment in completing his work in 2013 before returning to jail. The actor also recorded lines for Zanjeer remake at home before serving his sentence for illegal possession of arms related to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
Ram Charan made his Bollywood debut with the remake of Zanjeer. In the film, the Telugu actor played the role of ACP Vijay Khanna, originally played by megastar Amitabh Bachchan, while Sanjay played Shere Khan in the Hindi version. The role of Sher Khan was made famous by veteran actor Pran in the original film that released in 1973. Apoorva shared that Sanjay reached out to him personally and said that he wanted to complete dubbing for Zanjeer before serving his jail sentence.
During an interaction with Siddharth Kannan, Apoorva shared, “Sanju sir is amazing. He was going to jail the next day, and had not finished dubbing for Zanjeer. He was supposed to be picked up by the police the next day at 1:30, and he called me and said, ‘Brother, I’m really sorry I didn’t do your dubbing. Come over to my house tonight and do my dubbing.”
Apoorva went to their house and Sanjay cleared the entire bar space to make room. “I took my technician. He dubbed the entire film over the phone. And he was going to jail at 1 in the afternoon. That’s the bond,” said the filmmaker.
The 2013 version of Zanjeer featured Priyanka Chopra, Prakash Raj, Atul Kulkarni and Mahie Gill in lead roles. It was released in Telugu as Thoofan, with actor Srihari playing the role of Sher Khan. Apoorva’s most recent project is the web series Crackdown 2, which is currently available for streaming on Jio Cinema.
