Nearly quit after facing boycott: Sanjay Gupta on his showbiz career

Director Sanjay Gupta says his 25-year-long career is full of "hits and misses" but looking back, he feels happy that he has managed to bounce back overcoming every adversity.

Best known for films such as "Kaante", "Musafir", "Zinda", the "Shootout" series and "Kaabil", Gupta tasted success early by 40, he was on the verge of quitting the industry over some "terrible years" in between.

He made his directorial debut exactly 25 years ago with "Aatish: Feel The Fire". The film, starring Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, Aditya Pancholi among others, was backed by GP Sippy.

"It was the easiest film to cast. I was mostly working with friends. Thanks to Sanju, the film was getting made because no big movie gets made unless you have a star, so that was the start," Gupta told PTI in an interview.

He said much of the work he did post his debut is a blur and credits "Kaante" for a reversal in fortune.

"I was working with certain producers who had no clue. There was always so much I wanted to do but I would never get that free hand. Maybe I was not communicating to them what I wanted to do. My thinking was different always. When I became a producer, there was nobody I was answerable to, that's why there's a paradigm shift."
"I was holding him in my arms, and I thought, 'What am I going to leave for him'? 'Since when have I become a quitter'? I started at the age of 15, made my first film at the age of 22, now why was I ready to quit at 40?
"Ekta Kapoor and I had spoken about a sequel of 'Shootout'. So I picked up the phone and told her, 'I'm ready' and that's it. Later, I met John Abraham and Anil Kapoor and they said yes. But they were also told not to work with me."
"Anil had given a statement saying 'if Sanju directly tells me, don't work with Gupta, I won't. But he will have to give me a reason about why I shouldn't'. That was very gracious of Anil to make that statement in my support."
"I wasn't looking at him as a friend only for the film. It was a life lesson that everyone is friendly if you're friendly but at the end of the day, it is just work. In this business, if you don't work with the person you're friendly towards and work with someone else that person gets offended."