‘Speakers worth Rs 50 lakhs, 30 designers...': Sanjay Gupta recalls visiting Amitabh Bachchan's luxurious bungalow Jalsa

Sanjay Gupta recently recalled an interesting moment from the making of Kaante, where he shared the story of pitching the script to Amitabh Bachchan. On a podcast, Gupta confessed that Bachchan wasn't his first choice for the role.

Initially, he planned to cast a fresh group of actors, including Naseeruddin Shah. However, after presenting the script to Sanjay Dutt, who was part of the team supporting the project, Dutt immediately connected with the story and expressed his excitement about being part of it. He then suggested that Gupta reach out to Amitabh Bachchan for a role in the film. Gupta, however, didn't take the suggestion seriously at first, as he didn't expect any positive outcome.

He mentioned that while they were at Sanjay Dutt's home in Bandra, the actor made a call to Amitabh Bachchan and arranged a meeting for the script narration.

He said, "Sanjay Dutt had called up Amitji to ask if I could narrate the film and he fixed the meeting for two days later at 11 am. I was very nervous, at 10:55 am I pulled up outside Amitji’s house and two guards came running and said they would park the car. They gave me the directions. I walked into his compound and stepped onto the staircase, and I saw Amitabh Bachchan’s black and white pictures from his films, shoots, etc. So by the time you reach the second floor, you seem very little. Then they took me to a very well-furnished room where I sat on a sofa and was offered refreshments."

Sanjay further mentioned, "Suddenly the door from behind opened, and this giant figure walked out in a white Pathaani, introducing himself. He took me to another room and said he would be back in five minutes. I knew Big B was into very hi-tech sound systems, so the speakers and gramophones he uses are like Rs 50-60 lakhs plus, I saw that equipment. On his desk there was this mug, it had 25 to 30 pens in it and they were all Mont Blanc’s designer editions. He then came and sat down and we started the narration. He just sat there with a straight face and I got a little nervous. I told to myself that it was not going very well. So I asked him if I could narrate in my style and he said yes.”

He added, “The thought in my head was that one day I will tell my grandchildren that I narrated a story to Big B at his home. The narration was over in 30 minutes and after that were the most terrifying 20-25 seconds of my life. There was no reaction and my heart was beating very fast, then I asked him what do you think and he said he loved it. I almost couldn’t believe it. That’s how the journey started.”

Kaante, a heist thriller released in 2002, featured not only Sanjay Dutt and Amitabh Bachchan but also Mahesh Manjrekar, Suniel Shetty, Lucky Ali, and Kumar Gaurav in key roles.