Hrithik Roshan pays tribute to Kaabil director Sanjay Gupta

Bollywood is mourning Sanjay Gupta, a filmmaker whose name became shorthand for muscular Mumbai crime dramas. Gupta, best known for Kaante, Shootout at Wadala and the 2017 Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kaabil, died after a fall at his Mumbai home. He was found the following morning and could not be saved.

Hrithik Roshan remembers a friend and collaborator

Hrithik Roshan shared an emotional note on X, recalling the director’s laughter and the almost childlike thrill he brought to a promising idea. The actor made it clear that their one completed film together felt more like a beginning than a body of work.

“One film with you wasn’t enough,” he wrote, adding that there was “so much more we needed to do together.” He also spoke about regret, wishing he had hugged Gupta harder and thanked him for the experience of making Kaabil. For Roshan, the film was “the best experience of my life.”

What we know about his passing

According to family sources and collaborator Milap Zaveri, Gupta fell in his bathroom during the night and was discovered the next morning. Versova police registered an accidental death report and said no foul play had been found. His funeral was held late the same evening, with Abhishek Bachchan, Rakesh Roshan, Ronit Roy, Rohit Roy and Farah Khan among those attending.

Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit called Gupta “a passionate filmmaker, a wonderful narrator and someone full of life,” confirming that he had suffered a head injury at home.

A career built on Mumbai noir

Gupta was born in Mumbai in 1967 and made his directorial debut at 26 with Aatish: Feel the Fire (1994). From there, he carved a niche in crime dramas that treated Mumbai as a pressure cooker—the loose tradition now called Mumbai noir.

• Debut: Aatish: Feel the Fire (1994), with Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon.
• Breakthrough: Kaante (2002), inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.
• Other notable films: Jung, Zinda and Shootout at Wadala.
• Biggest hit: Kaabil, which earned around Rs 208 crore worldwide.

Why Kaabil still matters

For Hindi film fans, Kaabil is the clearest measure of Gupta’s reach. The revenge thriller gave Roshan a contained, emotionally driven action role and paired him with Yami Gautam; it became the director’s highest-grossing film. That balance of sentiment and revenge was squarely in Gupta’s wheelhouse, and Roshan’s tribute points to how much of that chemistry was personal.

The grief in Bollywood is not only for the filmmaker, but also for the projects that will never happen. Roshan’s message frames that loss simply: one film was not enough.

Source: India Today