Kaante director Sanjay Gupta has survived a near-fatal car crash.
Gupta was on his way back to Mumbai from Lonavla -- two hours from Mumbai -- when his car spun out of control. Close friends say the car was speeding at 100-odd mph when Gupta is said to have felt the vehicle wobble. He immediately asked his driver to stop. But when the driver braked, the car spun out of control and crashed into a lamp post.
The driver escaped with a few cuts and bruises; Gupta injured his rib cage and fractured his arm. He is also suffering from grave internal injury. He was admitted at Mumbai's Leelavati Hospital on Friday, December 27.
"He is a fighter!" says director Mahesh Mankrekar, who plays the street hoodlum Baali in Kaante. "Gupta was fully conscious when he was taken to hospital and throughout the examination. He was bleeding profusely." Manjrekar was at the hospital till the early hours of December 28.
Though Gupta has survived the accident, the filmmaker's spleen has been shattered beyond repair. This means that he will have to lead a very cautious and disciplined life .
Suniel Shetty, who plays a key role in Kaante, was
Just a few days before the accident, Gupta was excited about the box-office performance of Kaante. "Audiences were expecting an all-out action film. But Kaante is more inward. That could have gone against my film. Fortunately, I have seen how the audiences between the ages of 15 and 35 have reacted to Kaante. All of us -- Suniel Shetty, Sanjay Dutt, Mahesh Manjrekar and I -- have been visiting theatres in Mumbai and Delhi. They are going wild in the theatres. The response is beyond all expectations."
Gupta's production company White Feathers, which he owns with Sanjay Dutt, is in the throes of producing Plan, directed by debutant Hriday Shetty with Dutt, Bikram Saluja, Sanjay Suri and Dino Morea. There are at least three other projects on the anvil for White Feathers. It will be a while before Gupta can direct another film.
