Sanjeev Kumar Died at 47; His Faith in Mahesh Bhatt Outlived Him

On the evening of 6 November 1985, Mahesh Bhatt was in Dimple Theatre’s editing room with David Dhawan, cutting Naam. Rajendra Kumar opened the door with news that Sanjeev Kumar had passed away. The actor was 47. Trial screenings were called off, and film people gathered in shock at his home, where his body lay among ice through the night.

The death felt sudden, Bhatt recalls in a Filmfare remembrance, because Sanjeev Kumar had returned from heart treatment in America only weeks earlier and many had expected him to recover.

Roses before any Friday

The memory that anchors Bhatt’s tribute is an unlikely gift. In 1974, his first film Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain was held up by the censors for almost a year. A bouquet of red roses arrived at his middle-class home with a small note: “The takeoff may be delayed, but the flight is certain. Good luck. Sanjeev Kumar.”

The two had met only months earlier through a friend, Kuldeep Talwar, where Sanjeev would visit for food, drink and conversation. Bhatt, a self-described nobody with an unreleased film, talked endlessly about cinema. Sanjeev listened.

The film eventually released and flopped, but the friendship took flight instead. Sanjeev agreed to shoot Vishwasghaat at night in Bangalore after long days on Sholay, because Bhatt needed work. There was no negotiation, Bhatt writes, only an actor opening a door for a young director whose first film had failed.

The Capra lesson and a larger philosophy

Sanjeev also fed Bhatt’s hunger beyond sets. He took him to a USIS screening of a Frank Capra documentary. There, Capra’s observation that “people are interested in people” shook Bhatt out of his obsession with camera craft and taught him why audiences sit in a dark hall. Bhatt says he still repeats the line to young writers and directors.

That mentorship arc matters because it reverses the usual image of a star: not a competitor guarding roles, but a patron making long bets.

• He sent roses before Bhatt had a single release to his name.
• He shot a double role at night after Sholay without haggling over money or stature.
• He promoted Saaransh after losing the lead role.

Saaransh, grace and a final trailer

Bhatt originally planned to cast Sanjeev in Saaransh. When Anupam Kher fought furiously for the part, Bhatt realised that hunger was the character. He broke the news to Sanjeev as a producers’ decision and Sanjeev accepted without making him carry guilt.

After a private preview, Sanjeev curled up in the aisle, sobbed, and told Bhatt it was among the ten best films of his life. He then told Kher, “I couldn’t have done this role better than you,” and later shot an endorsement asking India to watch the film.

Bhatt last saw him at the Filmfare Awards in October 1985, where Sanjeev looked lean but dapper as he presented an award. A few weeks later came the news in the edit room. Walking away that night, a taxi driver asked Bhatt where Sanjeev Kumar lived. The boot was full of red roses—the same flowers that had once announced Bhatt’s uncertain flight. “You were right, Sanjeev Bhai,” he writes. “The flight was certain. I only wish yours had lasted longer.”

Source: Filmfare