Sanjay Dutt
Sanjay Dutt, yeah, he’s basically Bollywood royalty, being the son of legends Nargis and Sunil Dutt. Dude made his big debut in Rocky back in ’81, and the film totally crushed it at the box office. People saw him as this sensitive guy, but also, he was smashing it as an action hero—seriously, the 80s and 90s were his playground. And just when you thought he was all about the tough-guy roles, he’d flip the script and nail a comedy. Not everyone can pull that off.
But, man, Sanjay’s off-screen life? Kind of a wild rollercoaster. He struggled with drugs for years, lost his wife Richa Sharma to cancer, and then things got even messier—he got busted for illegal weapons. Prison time and everything. Not exactly the stuff of fairy tales. But when he got out? He didn’t just fade away. Nope. He bounced back with three back-to-back hits in ’99: Daag: The Fire, Haseena Maan Jaayegi, and, of course, Vaastav: The Reality. That last one? People lost it over his performance. He scooped up a bunch of Best Actor awards, Filmfare included.
From there, he kept the momentum going—Mission Kashmir, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., and Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Those Munna Bhai movies? Absolute classics, and the awards just kept piling up. Fast-forward a bit, and his life’s crazy story even got its own movie, Sanju, in 2018. What a ride, honestly.