5 similarities between Sanju actor Ranbir Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt

Ranbir Kapoor’s Sanju is the first mega-hit under the actor’s belt. With Rajkumar Hirani directing Munna Bhai hero Sanjay Dutt’s biopic, nobody really doubted about the film’s success at the box office. The film, however, fails to be an honest biopic and like earlier Bollywood attempts at biopic only ends up portraying Sanjay Dutt as a man-child that you should sympathise with. Yes, it also projects media as the ultimate villain of Sanjay Dutt’s life and almost ends up making the Rocky actor look like a victim of false reporting. Hirani manages to add humour, emotions and makes even the gravest of Sanju’s mistakes look like unintentional and human errors. But all that has been discussed already.
Prior to the movie’s release producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra had disclosed how he wanted Ranveer Singh and not Ranbir Kapoor to play Sanjay Dutt in the film. It was Rajkumar Hirani who insisted on roping in Ranbir and his decision seems to have paid off. Even though at the end of the film it was Vicky Kaushal as Kamli, who stayed with us for his class act, we felt that Ranbir had literally transformed for his role and did a fantastic job at bringing Sanju alive on screen without actually coming across as a mimicry artist.
Interestingly, we found quite a few similarities between Ranbir and Sanjay in real life too. Yes, the duo shares a warm rapport and Dutt had gifted Ranbir a fancy bike. Now we are not sure if Ranbir like Dutt is magnanimous and doles out expensive gifts, but the two have these five things in common...
Ranbir and Sanjay both come from filmi families. While Sanju felt pressurised because he had to live up to the legacy of his parents, veteran actors Nargis and Sunil Dutt, Ranbir seems proud of his Kapoor genes. Ranbir’s father, Rishi Kapoor continues to win the audience with his class act on screen. RK’s mommy, Neetu Kapoor too was a popular actress of her times and quit acting after she got hitched.
Like Sanjay Dutt, Ranbir too shares a special bond with his mother. We’ve heard enough stories about how Nargis used to be worried the most about Sanju. In fact, the buzz was that Rajkumar Hirani had earlier titled his movie Dutt, but changed it to Sanju as the actor was lovingly referred by his late mother. Ranbir too is a momma’s boy; the actor has always talked about his love for Neetu Kapoor. Reports also suggest that no girlfriend of Ranbir can make it to the aisle with the actor until mum approves.

Sanjay wanted to be a Bollywood hero, he had a grand launch pad in Rocky, but his first film wasn’t a blockbuster. Ranbir too entered Bollywood as an assistant director and debuted in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya alongside Sonam Kapoor, however, the film did not work. However, both their careers were not defined by their failures. Like Sanjay, Ranbir too was written off when he failed to dole out a success at the box office and like Dutt got Munna Bhai, Ranbir found a mega-hit in Hirani’s film on Sanjay Dutt.

Sanjay Dutt’s drug addiction phase has been portrayed on 70 mm now, but even before the movie, the actor had talked about this. Unlike Sanjay, Ranbir is not into substance abuse; however, in a recent interview to Anupama Chopra, the actor revealed that he had quit smoking. RK said, “I don’t remember myself when I was fifteen and before that and I think what it is that I was trying to give up smoking. So I went to this place in Germany to get these injections in my ears because your nicotine receptors are in your ears and I took that and I think it has messed up with my memory not in a very dark way, but in some way.” Ranbir confirmed he quit smoking officially.
In Sanju, we found out that Sanjay Dutt had 308 affairs, well a sum that was surprising if not a shocker to many. Ranbir too has a record with the ladies. The actor is popularly referred to as the Casanova of Bollywood and guess his personal experience did help the hero portray Sanju better on screen too.

Did you find any similarities between Sanjay Dutt and Ranbir Kapoor? Comment and tell me.