After Padmaavat, Rajkumar Hirani‘s ‘Sanju’ has become one of the most controversial films today, The film, which also starred the likes of Vicky Kaushal, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala and Jim Sarbh in key roles, managed to create and break several box office records.
While the movie has received all praises from the audience, it was subjected to criticism and was accused of “media bashing”, “whitewashing” of many facts and “glorification” of his friend and Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, on whose life the film was based.
But while the cast and crew had remained mum over the questions, Hirani finally answered the questions at the International Film Festival of Melbourne. On being asked to comment about the accusation that the makers have intentionally whitewashed Dutt’s image through the film, Hirani said, “Whitewashing as a word is being thrown open. If you’ve watched the film, what was Sanju’s crime.”
According to a report in the news agency IANS, the filmmaker counter questioned saying, “Yes, he kept the gun, and we have shown that. We have shown that he served five years in jail and that he is saying it was a mistake… So where is the question of whitewashing? What have I whitewashed? I want to understand that.”
Abhijat Joshi, the co-writer also defended the film and said, “The crime has been shown graphically. He is destroying the gun, we have shown that, the bullets are thrown away, we are showing that. So whatever is the crime is, is clearly shown.”