Sanjay Gupta’s wife becomes co-producer for Shootout At Wadala

By Subhash K. Jha -

March 2, 2012 - 11:15 AM IST

Sanjay Gupta’s wife becomes co-producer for Shootout At Wadala

The credit titles of Sanjay Gupta's Shootout At Wadala would have Sanjay Gupta's wife Anu Gupta's name as co-producer along with Ekta Kapoor.

Says Gupta enthusiastically, "Yes, for the first time my wife Anu's name will appear as the official producer for my film. In the past ten years, I've been to hell and back. I had a near-fatal accident. My wife brought me back from the dead. She gave me a new life, a new beginning and a son, at a time when my so-called friends decided to get seriously malicious. It's a new beginning for me. And if today I'm on the threshold of a fresh beginning it's because of my wife and the son that she has gifted me. So yes, she's the official co-producer of Shootout At Wadala."

Gupta has no ambitions of seeing his little son Shivansh grow up to be a filmmaker. 'No way! I've chosen this amazing international school for Shivansh, recommended by my dear friend Anil Kapoor. When I saw the school and the facilities and vision provided there, I immediately began dreaming big academic dreams for my son."

The film was launched on Wednesday evening in Mumbai with most of the star cast present to lend Sanjay Gupta support, although a section of the industry had threatened to ostracize anyone associated with Gupta.

Laughs Gupta nonchalantly, "I wish my detractors get a life of their own. You really can't keep a creative man down. Every effort to pull me down has finally failed. There was a time when everyone I approached to do a role had already received a warning against working with me. Luckily for me, actors of the caliber of Anil Kapoor, John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee and Sonu Sood stood by me. So today I am here, starting a film that I hope will prove I still have a long way to go."

Gupta says he has never felt so nervous excited and anxious. "When I started my career as a director in 1994 with Aatish, I was barely 22 and completely fearless. I had no fear of the unknown because I didn't know what lay in store. Today having made that long journey, I am embarking on another phase in my life with far more nervousness than my first film because I've a huge personal and professional responsibility on my shoulder. Shootout At Wadala has to work."

Known for adapting foreign films all his career Shootout At Wadala is a fiercely original script. Protests Gupta, "Sure, a lot of my work in the past was derivative. But none of the adaptations were blind copies. I did my own take on the originals. And I've also done original films. In my Dus Kahaniyaan every story was original."

Copyright rules have lately become more stringent. Is that one of the reasons why Sanjay Gupta has decided to go original with his new film?

Protests the director, "Not at all! And really, who says filmmakers have stopped copying because of stringent copyright laws? They're still doing it, though not getting caught at it. Even now proving plagiarism charges in a court of law is very tough. No, I'm only going to be doing original films now. Let others do the derivations now. I'm done with them."

At the event for the commencement of Shootout At Wadala on Thursday evening, Sanjay Gupta had a special section devoted to his technicians. "They are the ones who actually make a film. Of course, I honoured the actors in my film by giving each one of them their character's name and a dialogue from the film. But I felt it was equally important to honour the technicians."