His most famous work is undoubtedly Kaante , the 2002 release that ushered in an era of stylised gangster flicks set in the US. Right from the start of his career, filmmaker Sanjay Gupta made a name for himself by remaking, or sometimes blatantly ripping off, Hollywood films. But his remakes often captured a new aesthetic, untapped in Indian cinema, helping them stand on their own. Kaante was a remake of Quentin Tarantino’s seminal hit Reservoir Dogs, and the director went on record to say he ‘loved the rip-off’.
Both Kaante and Reservoir Dogs were stories of six criminals coming together for a bank heist, only to be betrayed by one of their own. Tarantino responded, “I think it was fabulous. The best part is, you have Indian guys coming to the US and looting a US bank. How cool is that! I was truly honoured. And these guys are played by legends of Bollywood.”
Reservoir Dogs, released in 1992, put Tarantino on the map as a director to watch out for. Kaante, released 10 years later, did the same for Sanjay Gupta. In 2007, Tarantino spoke at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, where Indian filmmaker Srinivas asked him about his opinion of Kaante. Of the many rip-offs, I loved Hong Kong’s Too Many Ways to Be No 1 and this one, Kaante.
The film was a moderate box-office success, earning ₹ 43 crore worldwide. Sanjay Gupta died at the age of 59 on Friday. The news of his death was confirmed by filmmaker and FWICE chief advisor Ashoke Pandit on social media.
Kaante starred Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Lucky Ali, Mahesh Manjrekar, and Kumar Gaurav in the lead roles. It was also noted for its differences with Reservoir Dogs, as it dealt with the characters’ backstories, something the Hollywood original did not. Tarantino himself noted, “Here I am, watching a film that I’ve directed, and then it goes into each character’s background. And I’m like, ‘Whoa! For I always write backgrounds and stuff, and it always gets chopped off during the edit. And so I was amazed seeing this. I felt this isn’t Reservoir Dogs, and then it goes into the warehouse scene, and I am like, ‘Wow, it’s back to Reservoir Dogs’. Isn’t it amazing! The filmmaker reserved some special praise for Big B, saying he particularly liked the “big beard guy, the famous guy in Bollywood’. The filmmaker died sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning at his home in Mumbai. However, there is no official confirmation yet.
In his social media post, Ashoke Pandit said the cause of death was a head injury.
