On July 29, 2019, Sanjay Dutt turns 60. On behalf of the entire LatestLY desk, we wish the dynamic superstar Many Many Happy Returns of the Day! Sanjay Dutt may be at the peaceful mode of his life right now, with a good support system in his wife Maanyata Dutt and their three kids, not to mention, Trishala, his daughter from his first marriage living in the States. Career-wise, he has some exciting movies ahead, like his first full-length South debut in KGF: Chapter 2 or his own production, Prasthaanam. Sanjay Dutt As Adheera in KGF Chapter 2: Did You Know This Is Not Khalnayak Star’s First South Film? Watch VIdeo,

However, some of his other projects are in the danger of either getting shelved or not getting made at tall. Like Torbaaz, co-starring Nargis Fakhri, which is almost completely shot but is finding difficulty to get a release slot. Or Shamshera, A Yash Raj Film that is about dacoits, and also stars Ranbir Kapoor, that the makers might have lost confidence after the disastrous performance of Sonchiriya. Since, the movie has not gone beyond the announcement stage.

But then Sanjay Dutt, like his senior colleague Amitabh Bachchan, has its big share of unreleased, shelved and incomplete films. Let's look back at the actor's career and check out some of the supposedly exciting films that he had signed for which never saw the light of the day!

Dus

Let's start with the most famous one. The movie came into news recently, when a song in the film, "Suno Gaur Se Duniyawalon", was used in Vivek Oberoi's PM Narendra Modi biopic. Dus was an action entertainer that has Dutt paired up Salman Khan and had the backdrop of terrorism. The movie has Raveena Tandon and Shilpa Shetty as the female leads.

Dus was touted to have some of the best action scenes ever filmed for that time. Unfortunately, its director Mukul Anand passed away before the completion of the shoot, and despite the producers' best efforts, the movie couldn't be completed. Sanjay Dutt later starred in another Dus, that was directed by Anubhav Sinha and had starred Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, Suniel Shetty, Esha Deol and Zayed Khan.

Beehad

Beehad was supposed to Sanjay Dutt's production that was to be directed by Milan Luthria and was to be a thriller. Ajay Devgn was to play a parallel lead, a character with grey shades. Vidya Balan was to be the female lead, and her role was said to be one of the boldest characters that she would have done. Beehad, however, failed to go beyond the announcement stage.

Munna Bhai Chale Amerika

This is interesting. After the success of Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra were ready to take Munna Bhai on a trip to America with his faithful sidekick, Circuit. They even released a teaser trailer of the film, that hinted at a plot where Munna Bhai and Circuit would teach the American President Gandhigiri.

That was more than a decade ago. In between Shah Rukh Khan's My Name is Khan came out, and the Munna Bhai makers realised the plot of this Karan Johar movie was similar to theirs. Sanjay Dutt himself was embroiled in his legal controversies.  And Hirani found a new muse in Aamir Khan. Munna Bhai 3 might happen somewhere in the future, but it won't be Munna Bhai Chale Amerika.

Ek - The One

When Ram Gopal Varma was in top form in the early part of last decade, every project he announces, where he is directing or just producing, causes ripples of excitement. One such project was Ek - The One. The thriller, based on the Hollywood classic McKenna's Gold, was said to be the costliest film ever made in Bollywood (then).

The movie was to star Sanjay Dutt along with Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar and reportedly, Akshay Kumar too. Unfortunately, like many other RGV movies that got shelved, this one never got into production. Maybe the huge budget itself was the reason.

Ek Anokhi Prem Kahani

Sanjay Dutt and director Mahesh Manjrekar become a powerful combo after the critical and commercial success of the gangster drama, Vaastav. They had together announced quite a few films. one of which was an unusual love story about a blind girl and a disfigured man. Kareena Kapoor was to play the female lead. But the lack of fascination for the subject didn't bring many takers for the film.

Koochie Koochie Hota Hain

Tarun Mansukhani must be one of the unluckiest directors in Bollywood. After delivering an enjoyable hit in his debut, Dostana, Mansukhani has been doing his best to get the sequel made, but it was never happening. In between, he made an animated version of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, with dogs and birds. Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Rani Mukerji voiced the animal versions of their characters from the original film. Sanjay Dutt, meanwhile, had replaced Salman Khan to voice the character of Aman.

The makers even released an interesting trailer of the movie, but there has been absolutely no update on this after that. Meanwhile, Mansukhani finally had his second film, Drive, on the road. But that movie is now getting delayed, with strong rumours that it could go straight to Netflix. In the meantime, producer Karan Johar has given Dostana 2 to another director. Talk about some serious bad luck!

Nayak

No, not the Anil Kapoor movie.

Before they collaborated for Daud, Ram Gopal Varma was to make a movie called Nayak with Sanjay Dutt and Urmila Matondkar in the lead. Dutt was to play an encounter specialist in this crime drama. It was speculated that some portions of the film were already shot before Sanjay Dutt served his first jail term in 1993 under TADA. Nayak was to be Sanjay Dutt's comeback film, but the actor lost interest in the film when he realised that the antagonist, played by Naseeruddin Shah, was similar to late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. Balasaheb had helped Dutt a lot in getting an early release from prison and he didn't want to ungrateful being a part of a movie that could insult the political kingpin.

Zameen

It is unfortunate that the reigning ladies of the '80s and the '90s - the late Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit - never worked in a movie together. Though they did come close. In 1987, Zameen was announced with these two actresses, and was to be directed by Ramesh Sippy of Sholay fame. Sanjay Dutt was to be the male lead, along with Vinod Khanna and Rajinikanth. Date hassles and other commitments pushed the film into the cold storage and later it got shelved.

Interestingly, Sridevi was to do Madhuri Dixit's role in Kalank, before her untimely demise in 2018 caused the change in casting. Sanjay Dutt had an important role in this period drama, that, unfortunately, tanked at the box office earlier this year.

Gangs of London

One of the favourite genres Sanjay Dutt's fans love to see him is the gangster genre. In Bunty Walia's Gangs of London, he was to play a ganglord based in London and involved in a turf war there with other gangs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origins. The movie was also to star Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty, Tusshar Kapoor, Dino Morea and Shaad Randhawa.

Power

This Rajkumar Santoshi project was announced with much fanfare a couple of years back.

Apart from Dutt, the movie was to star Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Ajay Devgn. However, after Ajay Devgn walked out of the film, the project crumbled and was left forgotten.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 29, 2019 04:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).