Bollywood has witnessed many controversies, but few match the drama surrounding Sanjay Dutt. After debuting in his father Sunil Dutt’s 1981 film Rocky, Sanjay quickly rose to fame. However, his early career was marked by a chaotic love triangle involving Tina Munim and the iconic Rajesh Khanna.
Sanjay Dutt starred alongside Tina Munim in his debut film Rocky, and the two quickly became romantically involved. However, as Sanjay’s life took a turbulent turn, so did their relationship, eventually falling apart.
In his biography Sanjay Dutt: The Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy, he opened up about his troubled relationship with Tina Munim. What began as a youthful romance soon turned complicated due to his drug addiction and Tina’s alleged growing closeness with Rajesh Khanna. Sanjay admitted that, despite everyone knowing about Tina’s alleged affairs, he blindly defended her. When their relationship ended and the affair with Rajesh was revealed, he felt humiliated and used, becoming the subject of ridicule in the industry.
He wrote, “Take my relationship with Tina for instance. The whole world knew she was fooling around with everybody, making a fool out of me, but I behaved like a blind man and defended her totally. Of course, at the end of it, when our relationship was over and her affair or whatever with Rajesh was brought out in the open, I felt like a fool. I felt used. I knew I was the laughing stock of the industry. Everybody was laughing at me.”
After Tina ended their relationship, reportedly due to her affair with Rajesh Khanna, Sanjay Dutt was overwhelmed with anger. Consumed by rage, he drove to Mehboob Studios where Rajesh Khanna was shooting. Although the situation seemed ripe for violence, Sanjay ultimately refrained from acting on his fury. He confronted Rajesh by sitting directly across from him, glaring at him. Despite the tension, Sanjay didn’t strike, later acknowledging that Rajesh was fortunate he held back.
He wrote, “It had happened soon after Tina had walked out on me. I don’t know what got into me that day. But I was just seized by anger… I couldn’t bear the fact that someone had walked out on me. So in anger, I swore to get Rajesh. I drove to the studios where he was shooting. He came out and sat on a chair. I too pulled up a chair right in front of him and sat down bang opposite. Then I kept staring at him and he got totally psyched. I would have walloped the sh*t out of him. But he just sat still. Lucky for him.”
In a recent interview with ETimes, Gulshan Grover talked about how his friendship with Sanjay Dutt made him cautious around Rajesh Khanna while shooting for Avtaar, as Khanna was dating Tina Munim at the time. However, to his surprise, Khanna was very warm and kind towards him, despite the tense situation. Grover shared that he had been worried about how Khanna might react, but Khanna welcomed him without any hostility, likely due to Grover’s friendship with Sanjay.
