Sanjay Gupta

Sanjay Gupta (14 April 1967 – 30 October 2026) was an Indian filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter who worked in Hindi films. Gupta was mostly known for his remakes of American action-thriller and crime films, including films such as Aatish, Kaante, Kaabil, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Shootout at Wadala, Jazbaa, Karam, Zinda and Mumbai Saga. He used to frequently cast Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham in his films.

Gupta started his career with Aatish (1994) starring Aditya Pancholi and Sanjay Dutt. Later he went on to write and direct films including Ram Shastra, Khauff and Jung. The filming of Jung (2000) lasted over two years. While filming Kaante in Los Angeles in 2001, the events of the 9/11 attack forced filming to relocate planned scenes from several areas that were then considered sensitive. Commentators noted a similarity in Kaante to Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs. Gupta said that he was inspired by a number of other films as well, including The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, and the film that inspired Reservoir Dogs, Ringo Lam's City on Fire. Further, responding to allegations of plagiarism, he went on to state that he would "beg, borrow and steal from any medium, be it films, newspapers, magazines, novels, reality, fiction, to make an interesting story."

Gupta's Zinda (2006) has been described as an unofficial remake of the South Korean film Oldboy.

He also produced the films Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007) and Dus Kahaniyaan, and directed and co-produced Shootout at Wadala, the prequel to Shootout at Lokhandwala.

On 24 December 2019, he made an announcement on the acquisition of Yali Dream Creations' Rakshak. Gupta took to Twitter to share details about the project which revolves around a "vigilante" superhero. "So proud and happy to announce that my company White Feather Films has acquired the rights for 'RAKSHAK' A thrilling graphic novel about a vigilante superhero. This is India's first graphic novel to be made into a massive and ambitious feature film to be directed by me," the director wrote alongside the covers of the four issues to the comics. He said he would be producing it under his company, White Feather Entertainment, along with co-producers, Asvin Srivatsangam and Vivek Rangachari from Yali Dream Works.

Gupta died in Mumbai on 30 October 2026, at the age of 59, after slipping in his kitchen and hitting his head on the kitchen countertop.