How successful was Sanjay Dutt as a leading actor

I watched Sanju recently and I really enjoyed it. I was born after Sanjay Dutt's time as a huge leading actor so i was wondering how succesful was he as a leading actor?? Was he like the Salman Khan of his time? How was he compared to his contemporaries??

There was a time when he was a bigger star than Salman actually, he was the hero in Saajan. His big hits include Rocky, NAAM, Sadak, Saajan, khal nayak, haseena maan jayegi, Jodi no.1, Dhamaal series, munnabhai series, and he won best actor popular for VAASTAV in 99, surely that's not after your time? But yeh I guess his prime as a lead hero may have been from 80s to early 2000s. Later he started aging and of course the jail in between didn't help either. Sanju was never really a romantic hero, he did a lot of hard hitting stuff even in the 80s and early 90s.

Originally posted by: Bollywoodlaver

There was a time when he was a bigger star than Salman actually, he was the hero in Saajan. His big hits include Rocky, NAAM, Sadak, Saajan, khal nayak, haseena maan jayegi, Jodi no.1, Dhamaal series, munnabhai series, and he won best actor popular for VAASTAV in 99, surely that's not after your time? But yeh I guess his prime as a lead hero may have been from late 80s to early 2000s. Later he started aging and of course the jail in between didn't help either. Sanju was never a really romantic hero, he did a lot of hard hitting stuff even in the 80s and early 90s.

Originally posted by: chosen_destiny

i agree with bolly post...that sanjay was a bigger action superstar than salman...had he not been in bad habits n controversies his career would have been something else...also he is a better actor than salman..infact salman beefed up because of sanjay dutt as he was insecure becoz of body..nevertheless he could never gain a height like sanjay though...

the only thing i didn't like in sanju film is hirani never showed that if sanju really loved the process of being an actor, sure he was shown as an actor..but did he really love it..or did it because there was nothing else he could do in life...only he can give the answer

Sanjay Dutt was NEVER bigger than Salman Khan.

Sanjay Dutt was atleast a better actor then both Salman and SRK if not a bigger star

Originally posted by: tanya-91

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, I beg to differ.

Salman was NOT lesser popular then sunjay in 90s..

infect sunjay saw a very rough patch after naam , no film of his worked for a long time... his career revived ONLY in 1991 with SAAJAN and SADAK.

While in the same year 1991 salman' was an emerging HUGE star with BACK TO BACK 6 SUCCESSFUL /PLUS/NON-FLOP FILMS

MAINE PYAR KIYA ATBB

BAAGHI HIT

SANAM BEWAFA SUPER HIT

PATTHAR KE PHOOL SEMI HIT

QURBAAN AVERAGE

SAAJAN SUPERHIT

SO SAAJAN was salman's career 6th film and 6th plus film in a row...salman was HUGE that time as well... BOTH SALMAN AND SUNJAY were EQUAL HEROES ...both have equal screen time, equal songs and equal importance in the film... the MOST POPULAR song "dekha hai pehli baar" was also filmed on salman, and NOT on sunjay...moroever the LAST FRAME of SAAJAN was also ON SALMAN...heck not on BOTH sunjay and madhuri...director shown them in background and blurred them, while Salman was zoomed in and the very last shot of Saajan was a SOLO SHOT of salman.

that says it all.

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Salman khan himself said that he piggybacked on sunny deol and Sanjay dutt and that's how he got Saajan and also JEET. His words not mine.

^ salman has the habbit of passing such careless remarks without caring about his superstar image a bit..even his father saleem khan stated in a tweet that dont take anything seriously that comes out of sallu's mouth...(referring to some of his tweets)

Originally posted by: tanya-91

^ salman has the habbit of passing such careless remarks without caring about his superstar image a bit..even his father saleem khan stated in a tweet that dont take anything seriously that comes out of sallu's mouth...(referring to some of his tweets)

just do the common sense thing here...

plz do check sanjay dutt's filmography... before year 1991 , his career was in a lull for a longtime...he was trying to get his foothold in the industry after a series of flops...

salman gave an ATBB in 1989...saajan was started shooting in 1990 when salman was a new emerging huge star while sanjay dutt was struggling...

just tell me HOW ON EARTH he can piggyback on someone who was struggling at that time?

and salman was in a better position during that phase and was an overnight sensation among youth...his DASHING POSTCARDS and posters were a CRAZE among girls ( u can see one in my dp as well)

he gave FIVE plus SOLO-HERO films BEFORE saajan...why on earth he needed to piggyback on a struggling actor of THAT time ??

and most importantly, as most members knows this already, AAMIR KHAN was the ORIGINAL choice of SAAJAN for sunjay dutt's role...it was the FIRST aamir-salman starrer EVEN BEFORE Andaz apna apna...things didnt worked out, aamir left the film and hence the role went to sunjay.

Aamir and salman were at equal level during those days as well with QSQT/DIL and MPK's/BAAGHI/SANAM BEWAFA super successes...

so NO WAY he needed to piggyback on sunjay dutt... it does not make any sense whatsoever...

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I am very calm my child, thnx for ur advice but its really not needed 😆