Sanjay Dutt was educated at the Lawrence School Sanawar. He had a troubled childhood even though he was born into the Bollywood royalty. While still in high school, he became a drug addict and the death of his mother Nargis a few weeks before the release of his debut film Rocky left him emotionally shattered. He struggled with drugs for a major part of his life and was sent to a rehab centre in Texas to fight the habit.
At the age of 12 he made his first film appearance as a child artist in his father's film Reshma Aur Shera where he had a small role as a qawaali singer. A young Sanjay Dutt later made his debut in Rocky (1981). Although the film did well, it failed to promote him as an established actor.
He has acted in several successful films in the 1980s, including Vidhaata (1982), Naam (1986), and Hathyar (1989). He was reportedly director Subhash Ghai's first choice to play the lead in Hero (1983), but after witnessing Sanjay Dutt in his drug phase during the shooting of Vidhaata, Ghai chose Jackie Shroff in his place.
Sanjay Dutt resurrected his cinema career with movies like Sadak (1991) and Saajan (1991). He received his first Filmfare nomination for the best actor in a lead role, for the film Saajan. His breakthrough role came in Subhash Ghai's Khalnayak (1993), which became a huge hit and gave his career a boost. He received a Filmfare nomination for the film.
The release of Khalnayak (1993) happened to coincide with Sanjay Dutt's arrest in connection with the 1993 Mumbai bombings. He was convicted of illegal possession of arms and ammunition, which were allegedly part of the consignment used in the bombings.
Dutt won himself a fan following with a variety of roles, including gangster and comic roles. He was noted for his performances in several films including Vaastav (1999), Mission Kashmir (2000), Munnabhai M.B.B.S. (2003). He also set up a production company with director Sanjay Gupta. The company, called White Feather Films, produced several films, including Kaante (2002), Musafir (2004) Zinda (2005) and Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007).
Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006) earned Sanjay Dutt rave reviews. His next release, Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007), also did very well.
On 28 November 2006, a special TADA court found actor Sanjay Dutt guilty under the Arms Act of possessing an illegal weapon. While Sanjay was cleared of terrorism charges namely the TADA Act, one of his friends who transported the AK-56 guns for Sanjay namely Baba Chouhan was found guilty under TADA Act. Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to 6 years rigorous imprisonment on 31 July 2007 by judge P.D.Kode.
