While many star kids give up on their dream of carrying on their parents’ legacy after a series of failures, there is one actor who gave 15 continuous failures but still became a superstar. The actor we are talking about was banned by Bollywood, however, upon his return, he broke box office records and earned Rs 3,000 crore from his films. This is Sanjay Dutt, the actor who succeeded as both a hero and a villain.

Sanjay Dutt is the son of superstar Sunil Dutt. He started his career as a child artist and made his debut as a hero alongside Tina Ambani in the film Rocky. The film became a huge success. This was followed by a series of box office failures, but soon in 1986, Mahesh Bhatt’s film Naam became a turning point in his career.

He went on to give hits like Saajan, Khalnayak, Vaastav: The Reality, Jodi No. 1, Haseena Maam Jaayegi and more. However, in 1993, he was arrested at MCOCA and sent to prison. Vidhu Vinod Chopra revealed in an interview how Sanjay was later banned from Bollywood. He said, “Sanjay Dutt went to jail. I didn’t know him at all. The whole industry banned him, but I thought it was very wrong, so I went to him and announced a film with him. His father said I would be banned too, but I said, “I don’t care.”

When Sanjay Dutt came out of jail, he called Vidhu Vinod Chopra who then offered him the role of Jimmy Shergill in Munna Bhai. MBBS Sanjay Dutt agreed, but after Shah Rukh Khan rejected the film, the producer offered Sanjay Dutt the lead role and the film became a blockbuster. .

However, after that Sanjay Dutt gave 15 consecutive flops between 2003 and 2006. From LOC Kargil, Plan, Rudraksh, Rakht, Musafir to Shaadi no. 1, Shabd and Anthony Kaun Hai? All of these films were box office failures. He made a successful comeback at the box office with Lage Raho Munna Bhai. He then turned to negative roles with Agneepath.

In 2020, while on his way back, Dutt was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He underwent treatment in Mumbai and recovered. While undergoing treatment for cancer, he signed his first Kannada film – KGF Chapter 2, in which he played the antagonist Adheera. In 2022, the film was released in theaters and broke all box office records, grossing Rs 1,200 crore worldwide. He followed this up with an appearance in 2023’s Jawan and another negative role in the Tamil film Leo. Together, the three films grossed nearly Rs 3,000 crore, making Dutt’s comeback a grand one.