Mumbai, July 12: The Rajkumar Hirani-directed biopic Sanju, starring Ranbir Kapoor has sparked many controversies claiming that the movie has been made to change Sanjay Dutt’s criminal image in the society. In the latest of such incidents, the RSS-affiliated weekly Panchajanya slammed the movie saying the biopic on Sanjay Dutt’s life ‘glorifies’ the underworld and the actor’s ‘vices’. The movie, however, is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2018.

According to a report by News 18, the RSS-affiliated weekly compared the Hindi film industry with Hollywood. “How ironical it is, on one hand, Hollywood has made films like The Man Who Knew Infinity based on Ramanujan, and on the other hand Bollywood celebrates underworld”, the editorial was quoted in the report.

The Panchajanya said Sanjay Dutt is a man of many vices as he was involved in the 1993 bomb blasts and communal riots. It further went on to say that he kept weapons in his house and didn't let the police know about it. “He married thrice and didn't meet his daughter for years. According to the film, he was in a relationship with 308 women. ‘Sanju' didn't keep the honour of his parents. This is Sanjay Dutt,” the weekly said.

The editorial further questioned if Dutt’s life merits a biopic and slammed director Rajkumar Hirani for making it, saying his last film PK was “anti-Hindu”. Taking a jibe at Hirani, the weekly said this film has been made by Rajkumar Hirani, the same director who was involved in the film PK and made fun of Hindu faith. Now with Sanju, Hirani wants to present a new role model to the youth.

The Panchajanya further questioned as to what extraordinary work had Sanjay Dutt done in his life that Bollywood made a biopic on him and asked about Bollywood’s “obsession” with the underworld. It said this is not the first time that Bollywood has come up with such a biopic, in the past films were made on Dawood Ibrahim, his sister Haseena, Chhota Rajan, Arun Gawli, Gujarat's Abdul.

‘Sanju’ – which hit the big screens on June 29 – rocked the Box Office by earning a whopping Rs 120.06 crore on the opening weekend.

Written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, ‘Sanju’ stars Ranbir as Sanjay Dutt, along with Manisha Koirala, Paresh Rawal, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Jim Sarbh and Anushka Sharma in pivotal roles

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 12, 2018 03:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).