Sanjay Gupta’s wife defends 13-year-old daughter after viral clip

Mumbai: A family’s worst morning became public within hours. After filmmaker Sanjay Gupta died at 57, a video from his Versova funeral went viral — not for a tribute, but because his 13-year-old daughter Dalai was seen raising her middle finger at photographers around the family’s car. Now his wife, Anuradha Lekhi Gupta, has responded with a clear request: leave their children alone.

What Anuradha said

In a note shared on Instagram by filmmaker Milap Zaveri on Monday, Anuradha spoke about the sudden loss and the cameras that followed it. She said Sanjay loved his family and children, and described Dalai and the couple’s 15-year-old son Shivaansh as adolescents who grew up away from the limelight and were deeply distressed by the intrusion.

“In their grief and anguish, some of their reactions may have been directed towards certain members of the media,” she wrote, asking people to see the reactions as “grieving children struggling to come to terms with an irreparable loss”.

She also asked paparazzi platforms to remove “any content that may leave lasting emotional scars on their young minds” and to give the family “privacy, compassion, and space”.

What happened

• The director: Gupta, known for Kaante and Kaabil, was found at his Mumbai residence on Saturday morning.
• The police account: He suffered a fatal head injury after a fall around midnight on Friday; a forensic team visited and an investigation is underway.
• The family’s position: Anuradha has not raised any suspicion of foul play.
• The video: At the Versova crematorium on Saturday evening, Dalai was filmed showing her middle finger at paparazzi.

Why this goes beyond one clip

A funeral car is not a film premiere. Gupta’s children have not chosen public life, and their grief is being turned into content because a camera was close enough to capture it. When coverage treats minors in mourning as a headline, it normalises the idea that every visible moment is fair game.

On Sunday, Anuradha shared a private Instagram tribute calling Sanjay “the bestest father in the whole brahmand” and the backbone of their family. The couple married in 1997, parted in 2003 and remarried in 2009 — a long, complicated history that makes the loss all the more personal.

What fans can do

The most respectful response is simple: do not amplify the funeral clips. Remember the filmmaker for his work, and give the family the space they have asked for. If a platform’s engagement model rewards the next intrusive frame, the audience’s refusal to share it is the strongest correction.

Source: The Times of India