Sanjay Dutt would 'force us to drink' during shoots, even non-drinkers had to join, paparazzi recall

Paparazzo Varinder Chawla recently opened up about his experiences with Sanjay Dutt, recalling moments when the actor would insist that photographers drink with him, regardless of their personal habits. Speaking to Siddharth Kannan, Chawla said that even non-drinkers often found themselves obliged to join the superstar.

“Many times, Baba would call us over during his shoots and ask, ‘Oye, idhar aa… do you drink?’ If we said no because we were working, he would insist, saying, ‘I feel like you drink.’ Others would back him up, and he would then force us to drink with him. We had no choice. He’s such a big celebrity that even non-drinkers would end up sitting and drinking with him. We would sit outside his house and drink with him,” Chawla recalled.

He also shared an incident from early in his career involving Sanjay Dutt’s vanity van. “At one point, I bought a second-hand Maruti Zen. Once, while Sanjay Dutt was shooting at Filmistan, I clicked his pictures and was about to leave when I accidentally hit his vanity van while reversing. His people immediately surrounded me and demanded money,” Chawla said.

He continued, “The cost of my car wasn’t even close to the damage they claimed. I was sure I was going to get beaten up when Sanjay Dutt came down and asked, ‘What happened?’ I told him I had hit his van. He turned to his people and said, ‘Let him go.’ At that moment, he felt like my messiah. He has always been a very chill guy.”

Meanwhile, Sanjay Dutt is enjoying the success of Dhurandhar, which has emerged as one of the biggest Bollywood releases of 2025. The film crossed the ?1,100 crore mark worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing Bollywood film after Aamir Khan’s Dangal.

Though Dutt had a brief role in Dhurandhar, he is expected to play a larger part in the sequel. Dhurandhar 2 is scheduled to release on March 19, 2026, and will face a box office clash with Yash’s Toxic. Audiences who miss the theatrical run can look forward to its Netflix release at the end of this month.