When Madhuri Dixit Called Sanjay Dutt Her "Favourite Partner" And He Said "I Love You" To Her Ignoring Others Around
After a series of surgeries, Richa went into remission. But during this fragile period, Sanjay and Richa's marriage was also unravelling. Enter Madhuri Dixit.
Sanjay's '90s resurgence began with Thanedaar (1990), where Madhuri starred as his leading lady. The film is best remembered for the chartbuster Tamma Tamma, featuring Dutt, a non-dancer, trying to keep pace with the dancing diva.
Apart from Thanedaar, Sanjay had previously worked with Madhuri Dixit in Khatron Ke Khiladi and Kanoon Apna Apna. Both had signed more films together, such as Sahibaan and Mahaanta, and were spending a fair bit of time together. Soon rumours of a romance between them started doing the rounds in Mumbai. When Saajan became a blockbuster, their chemistry was widely credited for its success.
This was when Sanjay's love life is said to have taken a very interesting, scandalous turn. Madhuri was signed as his leading lady in Khalnayak. While the stories about his association with Madhuri may not have been good for his already floundering marriage, their on-screen partnership would give Sanjay the best phase of his career.
In 2023, during a special screening celebrating 30 years of Khalnayak, Subhash Ghai turned towards Sanjay Dutt and playfully teased him, "Yeh bolta tha, yeh picture bohot door tak jaayegi par dekhta tha Madhuri ki taraf". Taken aback, Sanjay laughed quietly, choosing silence over a reply.
More than Saajan's success or Sanjay's rising stardom, it was the Sanjay-Madhuri story that dominated film magazine pages. Despite their denials, tabloids brimmed with innuendo and speculation. The media even hinted that Sanjay planned to divorce Richa.
By 1992, while shooting Khalnayak, the film press openly labelled them a couple. Their fondness was clear, and Madhuri, at least, made no effort to hide it. She once told an interviewer, "My favourite partner is Sanjay Dutt, he's a real joker... And his stories make me laugh all the time, but he is also a gentleman".
To another interviewer, she said, "Sanju is a fantastic person. He has a loving heart and, in contrast to the widely held view, a good sense of humour. He is the only guy who makes me laugh all the time. He does not play games. He is open and uncomplicated."
But Madhuri didn't say much more than this to the press. Insiders believed their relationship was serious, with whispers of a wedding. Filmfare did a cover story titled "Madhuri to Marry?", which hinted that Madhuri was planning to get married in 1994 - it didn't say to whom - and that she would leave the film business after her wedding.
In the same story, it was reported that Sanjay and Madhuri had grown close during the Mysore (now Mysuru) schedule of Sahibaan (1993) and that "Sanjay played Prince Charming to the hilt". Midway through the schedule the location was shifted to the picturesque hills in Manali. According to Sahibaan's director Ramesh Talwar, "He [Sanjay] was always following Madhuri around and whispering 'I love you', totally ignoring the fact that there were others around."
Though Richa seemed to want to work things out, Sanjay filed for divorce in early 1993.
Sanjay and Madhuri's last film together in the 1990s was Mahaanta (1997). The two shared the screen 22 years later in 2019's Kalank.
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Politicians and women's groups soon joined in, and the controversy escalated just as the film neared release. The censor board was adamant that the song, with its 'obscene' lyrics, should be deleted from the film. But Subhash Ghai fought back. The song stayed and went on to become a monster hit. It wasn't only Sanjay's infamy that prompted people to line up outside movie halls to watch the film. The song Choli ke peeche played an important part too. When Khalnayak was in the making, filmmaker Saawan Kumar launched Khal-Naaikaa, a separate film with a similar sounding title starring Anu Agarwal, Jeetendra and Jaya Prada. The press buzzed with attacks and accusations from both sides. Both films were locked in a race to the finish, and both hit theatres on the same day. As Khalnayak neared release, it took on a sharply political edge. Days before its premiere, BJP's student wing, ABVP, stormed Mumbai's Maratha Mandir, halting a screening of Sanjay Dutt's Kshatriya. 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When it opened on August 6, lines stretched around theatres. The verdict was clear: Bollywood's original bad boy had become an even bigger star. Khalnayak ended the year as the second-highest-grossing film of 1993, just behind David Dhawan's Aankhen, and one of the decade's biggest box office hits. Thirty-two years on, filmmakers still vie for the rights to remake Khalnayak. Subhash Ghai himself continues to tease the possibility of a Khalnayak 2. In these three decades, Sanjay and Madhuri have crossed paths many times at Bollywood functions and even shared the screen again in Kalank (2019). In 2017, Sanjay was a guest speaker for a session at Goafest. During the round of audience questions after the interview, someone asked Sanjay Dutt, 'Given a chance today, which actress would you like to marry?' Sanjay, in all seriousness, replied, 'I would like to marry Madhuri Dixit.'
