Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta, known for action and crime films such as Kaante, Musafir, Zinda and Shootout at Lokhandwala, has died after a fall at his home in Mumbai. He was 59.
According to Mumbai Police, as cited by The Times of India, the fall happened on the night of October 30. A police official told the paper that others were in the house but that it was late at night, so the family did not learn of it immediately. They found him the next morning and alerted the police.
Versova Police have registered an Accidental Death Report and an investigation is under way, Mint reported, adding that police said no foul play had been found so far. The Times of India reported that the family has not expressed any suspicion and that a forensics team visited the house as part of the formalities.
"It is true that he passed away. He fell and hit his head," filmmaker Milap Zaveri, one of his closest friends, told PTI.
What is still unclear
Accounts of the fall are not settled. Hanif Chunawala, another close friend, told ANI that Gupta fell in the kitchen. Police, quoted by The Times of India, and an IANS report both place the fall in the bathroom. Mint noted that an official statement from the family on the cause of death was still awaited.
A career built on crime and action
The Times of India traced Gupta's career to Aatish: Feel the Fire in 1994, with Sanjay Dutt, which began a long run of collaborations between the two. He went on to direct films including Kaante, Musafir, Zinda, Shootout at Wadala and Kaabil. His last film as director was The Miranda Brothers, with Harshvardhan Rane and Meezaan Jafri.
"Gupts, my brother. I still cannot believe that you are gone," Dutt wrote in a tribute quoted by Mint. Filmmaker Rakesh Roshan, who worked with Gupta on Kaabil, called the news "shockingly sad".
Rane told News18, as quoted by The Times of India, that he remembered dinners in Goa after the shoot of their film. "I've never met a happier man, on and off set," he said.