Gangster Abu Salem has sent a legal notice to the makers of Sanju stating that he has been erroneously depicted in the film which has caused him ‘pain and disrepute’.
Salem’s lawyer has issued a legal notice to Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and the distribution and production companies involved, demanding the removal of scenes which portrayed him in a poor light. Salem also threatened to file a defamation case against the makers, if the scenes were not deleted within a period of 15 days.
Gangster Abu Salem sends legal notice to makers of 'Sanju' movie, seeks publication of contradiction to the wrong information about him in the movie and an apology.Notice also states that if makers of the movie fail to do so in 15 days,he will file a defamation case against them. pic.twitter.com/Kn1FyyRLW0
— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2018
In his notice, Salem claimed he never met or supplied arms to Sanjay Dutt, as portrayed in the film.
The notice read: “The scene where Ranbir Kapoor (pictured as Sanjay Dutt) gives confessional statement about the possession of arms and ammunition during the communal tensions around our country in the year 1993 is defaming my client as my client never supplied the arms and ammunition as alleged to Mr. Sanjay Dutt as pictured in the said film.”
The gangster is serving his life sentence after being convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
Sanju follows the life and times of actor Sanjay Dutt. Apart from Ranbir Kapoor who plays the titular character, the film also stars Paresh Rawal as Sunil Dutt, Manisha Koirala as Nargis Dutt, Anushka Sharma, Sonam Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Vicky Kaushal, Jim Sarbh and Boman Irani. While critics have panned the film for sanitising the facts, Bollywood can’t stop raving about the film.
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Sanju covers two distinct phases of Dutt’s life – his struggle with substance abuse and his being named an accused in the 1993 Bombay blasts case and for receiving arms and ammunition from Salem.
That said, the Rajkumar Hirani directorial ran into its fair share of controversies before its release. Social activist Gaurav Gulati had filed a complaint with the National Council for Women, alleging that derogatory language has been used against sex workers.
Furthermore, the Central Board of Film Certification had received a complaint from activist Prithvi Mhaske who alleged that the scene showing a toilet leak in Sanjay Dutt’s jail cell tarnished the image of the Indian prison system.