Sanjay Gupta, the Indian director best known for the crime drama films Kaante and Shootout at Lokhandwala, died Friday, October 30, after a fall at his home in Mumbai. He was 57 (though some sources put his age at 59).
His death was confirmed by friend and fellow director Milap Zaveri to the Press Trust of India. Zaveri also confirmed the fall that precipitated Gupta’s death.
Mumbai’s Free Press Journal writes that local police registered an accidental death report and said no foul play is suspected. Police said Gupta slipped in the kitchen of his residence on Friday night, “sustained a serious head injury and later succumbed to his injuries.”
The writer-director is best known for the gangster and crime films upon which he built his reputation as a modern master of neo-noir underworld thrillers. In addition to Kaante (2002) and his screenplay for Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007), Gupta is known for Shootout at Wadala (2013), Aatish: Feel The Fire (1994), Kaabil (2017) and others. He was a frequent collaborator with the actor Sanjay Dutt.
As a producer, Gupta and his White Feather Films produced Shootout at Lokhandwala and Acid Factory, among others.
Born in Mumbai, India, on October 23, 1969 (some sources put the year at two years earlier, making him 59 rather than 57 at the time of his death) Gupta often expressed a willingness to “beg, borrow and steal from any medium” in creating his own work, a penchant that led to questions of something approaching plagiarism. Most notoriously, Gupta’s heist story Kaante drew comparisons to Quentin Tarantino‘s Reservoir Dogs, similarities noticed by the Pulp Fiction director himself.
“I think it was fabulous,” Tarantino said in 2007 at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. “Of the many rip-offs, I loved Hong Kong’s Too Many Ways to Be No 1 and this one, Kaante. 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.”
Gupta is survived by his wife Anuradha Lekhi Gupta, son Shivaansh Gupta and daughter Dalai Gupta.