Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani shared a new poster from his film Sanju starring Ranbir Kapoor. This unfiltered biopic on superstar Sanjay Dutt’s life is one of the most awaited films of the year. The poster that was released today takes us back in time to the year 1993 – when Sanjay was first convicted as guilty for the possession of illegal weapons and having an association with the gangsters involved in the Mumbai blasts.

In this poster, Ranbir looks uncannily like Sanjay when he was sentenced to a five-year jail term. Ranbir is wearing an off-white kurta with blue jeans, untrimmed beard and messy hair, add to his despair. The filmmaker shared in a tweet, “Sanju was first arrested in 1993. In prison for 18 months. Could not get bail. A recreation of that time”

https://twitter.com/RajkumarHirani/status/995176019697942528

What began in the year ’93 became a nightmare that Sanjay lived for over twenty years. It was also at this time that he was riding highs on his success as an actor in the Bollywood industry. He gave major box office hits like Khalnayak and Saajan. Later in one of the interviews, he confessed that mafia dons Abu Salem along with Samir Hingora and Hanif Kadawala, having close associations with Dawood Ibrahim, visited the actor in his Mumbai residence. They offered him three AK-56 rifles, of which he retained one. The reason, Sanjay mentions, was to protect his family against the death threats he had been receiving following the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.

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Soon after learning about the association and arrest of Samir and Hanif with the Mumbai blasts, Sanjay asked his friend to destroy the rifle. But as fate would have it, it was already too late for the actor to undo his deeds. He was released several times and went on to serve his prison period until recently in 2016 – when he was finally released. The actor made his comeback with Bhoomi and he has multiple films lined up.

Sanju also features Sonam Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Anushka Sharma, Paresh Rawal and Manisha Koirala. It is produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s VVC films and Fox Star Studios and is set to release on June 29, 2018.