Sanjay Dutt stepped into the world of glamour and stardom 40 years back with Rocky, co-starring Tina Munim. The film was directed by his father, Sunil Dutt. Rocky completed 40 years yesterday, April 26.
Here are 5 lesser known facts about the film:
1. Sanjay Dutt's debut film was to be directed by Raj Khosla, an old associate of Sanjay’s father Sunil Dutt. But when Khosla was unable to do the needful, Dutt Saab had to step in. Another family member in Rocky was Sanjay Dutt’s uncle Anwar Hussain. He was his mother Nargis’ cousin.
2. Tina Munim who played Sanjay Dutt’s love interest in real life played his girlfriend in the film. She had a tough time staying on board as Sanju Baba stayed in a psychedelic haze throughout the film. Popular actresses Raakhee Gulzar and Reena Roy agreed to play Sanjay’s mother and mentor, respectively because…well, no one said no to Sunil Dutt Saab.
3. R D Burman’s music score was a highlight. The Lata-Kishore duet Kya yehi pyar hai remains popular to this day. But the track with maximum history is Aa dekhen zara kismein kitna hai dum by Asha, Kishore and R D Burman. In the song Dutt and Munim with two left feet (that is a total of four left feet) had to participate in a dance competition with Reena Roy and Shakti Kapoor two of the best dancers in Bollywood, and defeat them.
4. Rocky was released two months after Sanjay Dutt’s brother-in-law Kumar Gaurav’s launch pad Love Story which was a far far bigger hit than Rocky. Sanjay Dutt went to become a superstar while Gaurav faded away.
5. At the film’s premiere father and son Sunil and Sanjay Dutt paid their respect to Nargis by keeping one seat empty between them. I wonder what Nargisji would have said about Rocky. Knowing how outspoken she was, she would probably have called a spade a spade.
Image source: SpotboyE archive/IMDb