Sanjay is the son of the stellar couple of Bollywood, Nargis and Sunil Dutt. He was educated at the Lawrence School, Sanawar, near Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. When only 12, he appeared as a qawwali singer in dad Sunil Dutt’s Reshma Aur Shera. Though seemingly an enviable position, the untimely death of Nargis and immense glare of stardom had an adverse effect on the young man, and Sanjay started doing drugs. His first movie ‘Rocky’ was a moderate success, but didn’t do much for his career. After spending a year in rehab in America, he returned to give many hits in the 80s.
His career took off ironically in 1993 (simultaneous to the success of ‘Vidhaata’), when he was arrested in connection to the Bombay blasts. He came to light with his performance in his 40th flick ‘Saajan’ (1991), for which he received his first Filmfare nomination for the Best Actor in a Lead Role.
His breakthrough role came in Subhash Ghai`s ‘Khalnayak’ (1993), which was a big success and gave his career a boost.