I Was Nervous Working With Madhuri Dixit, Reveals Sanjay Dutt

Sanjay Dutt turned 59 recently and in retrospect, he admits that the failure of his last two releases, Bhoomi (2017) and Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 (2018), has made him more discerning while choosing projects.

Sanju Baba as he is lovingly called by his fans, feels that he has not been taking his roles seriously. "I can't take my work for granted. I have to start taking the onus of my characters; earlier, I would leave it on the directors. I will still surrender myself to Bhatt saab (Mahesh Bhatt) for Sadak 2, which we start soon,". He furthered, "People want to see me as Baba again, and I will give them that. In my next few films, you will see a lot of action and comedy. So, I am confident that it will be a good journey ahead."

The Dharma Productions’ period drama is his first step in that direction. The pre-Partition drama was originally conceptualised by producer Karan Johar's father, the late Yash Johar. Dutt, who plays the patriarch Balraj Chaudhry, is proud to have earned a place in Karan's vision.

"During the shoot of Gumrah in the year 1993, Yash uncle had briefly mentioned about the story. Dharma Productions is like family; so when Karan approached me with the film, I had to do it. It is also a coincidence that my character is named Balraj, which is my father's [Sunil Dutt] real name. He too came from Pakistan during Partition, so it has an emotional connect."

Kalank will also see the Sanju – Madhuri pair reunite on screen, 22 years since their last outing, Mahaanta (1997). while Sanjay Dutt plays Balraj, the patriarch, Madhuri plays a courtesan called Bahar Begum. Now, one doesn't know whether the duo would be having a romantic angle in the film but the two can be seen together in various scenes and that is fodder enough for their fans to get excited. Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit have had a troubled past. The rumours of the two seeing each other were rife in those days and when Sanjay went to serve his jail term, Madhuri broke up with him after an ugly spat. It has been a long time since and both the actors are in their 50s. And like matured individuals the duo have put their past behind them. During the promotions of the film when Sanjay was asked about his working experience with Madhuri after such a long time, Sanjay revealed that he indeed was shaky about working with Madhuri after the huge gap, having said that he also admitted that it was a lovely experience. "It was great to work with her again. I was a little nervous, but she made things easy. She's got terrific command as an actor. We spoke about our kids. In fact, I made my children Shahraan and Iqra meet her when they dropped by on the sets."