Sanjay Gupta’s 5-Year Wait to Remarry Anu After Underworld Secret

Sanjay Gupta, the filmmaker behind Kaante, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Shootout at Wadala and Kaabil, died on October 30 after a head injury at his Mumbai home. He was 57. In one of his last interviews, with author Hussain Zaidi on the YouTube channel Hussain Zaidi Files, Gupta returned to a chapter he usually kept guarded: the underworld-related misunderstanding that ended his first marriage, and the long effort to win it back.

A marriage interrupted by silence

Gupta and Anuradha (Anu) Lekhi Gupta dated for around two-and-a-half years before marrying on August 18, 1997. They divorced in 2003. In the interview, Gupta said he spent four to five months waiting for calls in a friend’s empty flat to sort out a misunderstanding involving the underworld. He could not tell Anu where he was going, so she began to suspect an affair.

“I cannot tell her where I am going. I have to shield her from this,” he said. Gupta also admitted the marriage had other problems. In a 2013 conversation with The Times of India, he said he was not working, was drinking heavily and was unfaithful, adding, “The problem in our marriage was me.”

The five-year road back

After the separation, Gupta had a three-year relationship with actor Sameera Reddy and then other relationships, but he said his feelings for Anu never faded. He continued to support her financially and stayed close to her family. In 2007, he told Hindustan Times that Anu was “the only one woman in my life” and his “true love.”

• August 18, 1997: Gupta and Anu marry
• 2003: the couple divorce
• 2007: Gupta calls Anu his “true love”
• October 2008: he confirms they plan to remarry
• June 3, 2009: they remarry in a temple in Khar, Mumbai

Gupta proposed on their first date, which took place on Valentine’s Day, and said he spent the five years after the divorce trying to win her back. They remarried on June 3, 2009, in an intimate temple ceremony in Khar and later had two children. After the wedding, he told The Times of India, “I have been stalking her all through these five years.”

Why his confession lands like a Sanjay Gupta film

His best-known work was built on gangsters, cops, loyalties and the cost of keeping secrets. The director’s personal story runs along the same lines: a man shields someone he loves, the silence creates suspicion, and the relationship has to be rebuilt piece by piece. That mirroring may be why the last interview has struck a chord with Hindi film fans—it is not just an obituary detail, but a real-life second-chance arc.

The confession also reframes the films he leaves behind. Viewers revisiting Kaante or the Shootout films may now hear a more personal note in their themes of misunderstanding and loyalty. Gupta is survived by Anu and their two children.

Source: The Times of India