Fans and critics may be raving about the Rajkumar Hirani directed Sanju starring Ranbir Kapoor, but there are also those who have spotted the absence of Sanjay Dutt’s first wife Richa Sharma from the film. Here’s a look back at Sanjay Dutt’s first wife who was forgotten in Sanju.
The most important of them all was the glaring absence of Sanjay Dutt’s first wife Richa Sharma in the film. Forget depicting the tragic story of Sanju’s first wife on the big-screen, the film even failed to mention her existence in his life or for that matter his first-born – daughter Trishala Dutt
Love at First Fight
It was love at first sight for them, Sanju reportedly met Richa Sharma at the muhurat of one of my films at Hotel Sea Rock. Richa, who was raised in the US (New York) had come to Mumbai in pursuit of a career in Bollywood.
“I met Richa for the first time at the muhurat of one of my films at Hotel Sea Rock. She was wearing jeans and a multi-coloured top. I inquired as to who she was. A few days later, I called her and asked her to go out with me. I soon realised that Richa was different from the girls I had known before. She was not calculating, manipulative or chasing after money. She was a simple girl, a fantastic person to trust. I could no longer live without her,” Sanjay had said in an old interview, as reported by DNA.
They started dating and in a couple of years tied the knot (1987). But their enigmatic love story took a tragic turn a year later as Richa was diagnosed with cancer. Sanju took immediately took her to the US for treatment, however, couldn’t stay with her for long as he had commitments back home – movies lined up. Meanwhile, their first child Trishala Dutt, stayed back in the US with her mother and along with her maternal grandparents.
After a four-year-long battle with cancer, Richa finally recovered and in with tears of joy and a new-found hope flew back to India to be with the love of her life, Sanjay Dutt. However, much to her disbelief, Sanjay Dutt didn’t even come to receive his wife and daughter at the airport. According to Yasser Usman’s unofficial biography of the Sanju, titled ‘Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy’, he was busy romancing his on-screen heroine Madhuri Dixit in real-life
Later that year, Sanju got arrested for his alleged involvement in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. Bollywood’s dhak-dhak girl Madhuri Dixit, cut all ties with him almost immediately and he was left all alone, awaiting a prison sentence.
