Exclusive | 20 years of Kaante: Sanjay Gupta reveals how Amitabh Bachchan refused to abuse, his near-fatal accident

In an interview with indianexpress.com, Gupta shared how he envisioned Kaante at his low phase, its quick but eventful shooting schedule in Los Angeles and his accident seven days after the release, which nearly killed him.

Edited excerpts:

Twenty years of Kaante, what does that make you feel like?

It makes me feel like, ‘Where did these 20 years even go?’ The film was my most eventful journey, it was launched in 2000, shot in 2001, released in 2002. It’s my fastest production, we shot it in 33 days flat in Los Angeles, but it was my longest post-production. We didn’t make Kaante with the intention that we will show people how to make a film with style. I just followed my gut and made it. The film eventually became a landmark for everyone.

What was your state of your mind when you decided to make it?

I was f***ed. I hadn’t signed a film for five years, two of my films had bombed and the other two weren’t getting completed. Nobody was touching me with a barge pole. I didn’t know what to do next, I was very frustrated with the whole system. I was working with producers who didn’t understand filmmaking.

So, what’s the origins of Kaante?

The whole world thinks Kaante is Reservoir Dogs, no it isn’t. there are a few similarities in the second half of the film but the genesis of Kaante was the Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri & Sons Jewellers robbery case, which was later made into the film Special 26. Till today that’s unsolved. My idea was, what if they were six boys from Dagdi Chawl, who conduct the most successful heist in the history of India, go back to Dagdi Chawl which is suddenly surrounded by cops.

The first person I went to write this for me was Makrand Deshpande. I wanted him to write it as a play. I later went to Sanjay Dutt, asking him to present the film because it was envisioned as a film with newcomers. He heard the story and said he wants to play Ajju’s part. I said please don’t say this because then the other five have to be of your stature. I didn’t even have a producer, so he said let’s do it together and we launched our own company. The first name for White Feather Films was Our Kind of Films.

At what point did the Reservoir Dogs inspiration come in?

There was a producer from Los Angeles called Raju Patel. He wanted to do a Hindi film and suggested to do a film based over there, as he would organise everything. I told Sanju, ‘Ok, so the story could be that all these guys are based out of Los Angeles.’ That’s the time that more than Reservoir Dogs, I was inspired by The Usual Suspects—a group of strangers who meet in a lock up.

That was the tick off point. It kind of ventured into Reservoir Dogs and Ringo Lam’s City on Fire (1987). There’s a film called Gaddaar starring Vinod Khanna, it has the same storyline, you can look it up. So it’s not like… In my film the warehouse starts at reel no 12, which is the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs. Where did the first 12 reels come from? Even Tarantino has appreciated the film and the backstory I had given.

Was the cast difficult to get?

Not at all. Everyone was on board in first narration. As a matter of fact, the actor I really wanted in Kaante was Akshaye Khanna for Lucky Ali’s role. We had a few narrations, but he wasn’t getting convinced if the character was a hero or a villain. I had met Lucky Ali because we were doing music with him. While talking to him I asked Sanju if Lucky fits and he said yes. Lucky also agreed.

Mr Bachchan came on board over a phone call from Sanju. I think he decided to do the film even before I narrated it, because Sanju was a producer on the film. A very lesser-known fact is that all five of them, barring Kumar Gaurav, let go of their remuneration. On the fourth day of our shoot in Los Angeles, we had to shut down because the union guys came—and we were trying to go the non-union way. Suddenly the budgets escalated, and we didn’t know what to do.

It was Mr Bachchan who came forward and said, ‘I don’t want any money, but let’s make the film happen.’ Then Sanjay and Suniel said no, and theirs was the big amount. Mahesh and Lucky’s amount was lesser. Kumar Gaurav’s brother-in-law (Raju Patel) was one of the producers (along with Gupta and Pritish Nandy) so he said he’ll pay him and that was fine by me. All these actors did that unconditionally. Can you name an actor who’ll do that today?

With so many actors on board, was there never an ego clash?

We didn’t have that. Once, Mr Bachchan took me aside and said, ‘Sanjay I won’t abuse, that’s one thing I’ve never done, so I won’t do it. If someone else is abusing, then I’ve no problem’. I was fine with it and thought it was extremely gracious of him. Phir bhi unke muh se nikal he gaya dialogue, ‘Agar mujhe pata hota tum sab itne bade c*** ho toh main kabhi ha bolta he nahi’ (laughs). But he was very, very nice and supportive.

There was a scene where Sanjay Dutt abuses Amitabh Bachchan’s character…

It was ‘Major saara din tu bhokegaa ya katega bhi’. That’s where the whole Reservoir Dogs thing came from because that was a big line in the film, ‘Are you going to bark all day little doggie or will you bite.’ So, from there this hullabaloo began. But there are a lot of things that are not there in that film which is here.

What’s a striking memory from filming Kaante?

The day of 9/11! We had started shooting on September 4 or 5 and on September 11 I was driving to work in the LA Freeway when on the radio I heard the news that one aircraft had crashed into one of the twin towers. There was a person who was recording sync sound for the film, so by the time I reached the location, we saw the second plane crash on his small TV with antenna. We had to shut down the shoot. My first AD’s brother was in the building. All my shoot locations were cancelled, those were tough four days.

What was the release like then?

The biggest irony in my life is that the film released on December 20 and the next Friday morning—December 27—I was driving back from Khandala and had an accident, where I almost lost my life. My driver crashed my car. I was in ICU for 11 weeks. So, all the madness that happened with the film, I missed out on everything!