New Delhi: Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta died at the age of 59 on Saturday after suffering a head injury when he fell in the kitchen of his Mumbai residence around 2:30 am. Gupta was known for adapting several international films into Hindi action dramas, including A Better Tomorrow and Reservoir Dogs.
Across his three decade long filmmaking career, Gupta mostly adapted international films, particularly Hollywood and Korean cinema, into Hindi action dramas. His filmmaking journey began with Aatish in 1994. Starring Sanjay Dutt and Aditya Pancholi, the film reworked and combined elements from two films, Deewaar (1975) and the Hong Kong action film A Better Tomorrow (1986). It revolved around two brothers who live in a modest house with their widowed mother, who works as a domestic help. When one of the brothers kills a local Goan man, he takes shelter with a gangster. The story follows the consequences of this incident.
The following year, Gupta made Ram Shastra (1995), based on the Hollywood film Hard to Kill (1990). The Hindi version starred Jackie Shroff, Aditya Pancholi and Manisha Koirala. The film follows Ram Sinha, played by Jackie Shroff, an honest but unemployed young man who foils a plan by wealthy criminal Dhonga, played by Anupam Kher, to assassinate the police commissioner, Dara Singh.
Gupta then made Hameshaa in 1997, which is not considered an official remake of any Hollywood film. In 2000, he directed Jung, inspired by the 1998 Hollywood film Desperate Measures, starring Michael Keaton. In the Hindi version, Sanjay Dutt played the lead role. The film’s screenplay was written by Abhinav Kashyap and Anurag Kashyap.
The story follows Veer, an honest police officer whose ailing son needs a bone marrow transplant. The only compatible donor is an arrested criminal named Bali. When Bali escapes custody, kills Inspector Khan and goes on the run, Veer must track him down to save his son’s life.
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Reservoir Dogs to Kaante
In 2002, Gupta directed Kaante, an adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992). The Hindi film starred Sanjay Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan, Suniel Shetty, Lucky Ali, Mahesh Manjrekar and Kumar Gaurav. It follows six South Asian men who are wrongfully detained in Los Angeles and plan a bank heist to take revenge on police. However, their escape plan descends into paranoia and violence when they discover that one of them is an undercover police officer.
In 2006, Gupta made Zinda, a Hindi adaptation of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003). The film starred Sanjay Dutt, John Abraham and Lara Dutta. The film follows Roy, a Bangkok based software engineer, who is abducted and held captive for 14 years. After his release, he sets out to find his captor and seek revenge.