The teaser of the Sanjay Dutt biopic titled Sanju featuring Ranbir Kapoor and directed by Rajkumar Hirani was unveiled today and it is unbelievable to see how Ranbir has stepped into so comfortably in the shoes of the senior actor. His transformation right from his looks to his mannerisms is bang on and it is a tad difficult to realize that you’re looking at Ranbir and not Sanjay. Sanjay has led a very eventful life and with this biopic, the adage that art imitates life actually comes true.

During the teaser launch event, Ranbir was asked how he felt about stepping into Sanjay’s role and perfecting his mannerism, to which the actor said, “I felt really shy to mimic Sanjay Dutt.  Sanju Sir ki nakal utarana was difficult as I did not want to disrespect him. I have always been a Sanjay Dutt fan. Hardest was to give myself confidence to do it. To have the courage and acting chops to do this role. To tell story of my icon, was the hardest”.

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He further added that he was always a Dutt fan and it was difficult to play the young Sanju. He said, “There can only be one Sanjay Dutt. I am only trying to portray his character. It was difficult to play was the young Sanju. There were more phases we have to show, the drugs and his mother's loss. The fun was the Munna Bhai phase." He also said, “I know him as a family friend. When I read the script, I got to know his life journey. That shocked me. Drugs, his controversy with terrorism, his equation with his father, everything shocked me."

Talking about the physical transformation that Ranbir had to undergo, he said, “Looking like someone is no big deal. To understand a character was a little hard. As an actor, you have to be true to yourself and intelligent enough to do it.” He further added, “It was really fast, number of days wasn't much. I gave myself a month break between every phase. So there was a lot of team effort behind this. I think a year before that we did a lot of prep and screen tests, trying to give Raju sir the confidence that I can look muscular Sanjay Dutt. I usually have a very thin frame, it was hard for me to put on muscles. I can look like the Sanjay Dutt who comes out of the jail or the guy who was doing Munna Bhai at the same time looking like young Sanjay in Rocky. That was easy because that's how I also look."

When Kapoor was quizzed whether a biopic can be made on his life, he rubbished the speculations saying that his life is very boring and hence the movie will be extremely so. However, for now, the Sanju biopic is definitely got our hopes high and we can see that Ranbir is back with a bang with this movie. The Sanjay Dutt biopic will release on June 29, 2018, and other than Ranbir it also stars Manisha Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Vicky Kaushal, Karishma Tanna and Paresh Rawal.

https://youtu.be/rRr1qiJRsXk

DESK: VANDANA SRIVASTAWA