Rahul Dev: Sanjay was working on another interesting subject

Sanjay Gadhvi (1965-2023)

The Hindi film industry is shocked by the sudden and untimely demise of Sanjay Gadhvi. The director, best known for helming action thriller films like Dhoom and Dhoom 2, passed away on Sunday morning following a heart attack. He was to celebrate his 58th birthday on November 22.

Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta says Gadhvi remains the same great guy he knew from his schooling days in South Mumbai, where the latter used to stay. "We worked together for Sippy Films. He was assisting Anant Balani, who also is no more, I was doing sound designing for Patthar Ke Phool. Even after he achieved success with films like Dhoom and Dhoom 2, he remained the same genuinely wonderful person he always was." The Mumbai Saga director shares he will remember his namesake for his personality and his energy. "He was always positive, a nice person. I never saw him stressed about anything."

Rahul Dev remembers Gadhvi for being welcoming and helpful even before they collaborated on Kidnap. The actor, who was looking to return to work after a break, met the director at his home. "He couldn't get me any work at that time as he was going through a process of introspection. He had been working on a film but that didn't take off as planned. Yet, he gave me two hours of his time, speaks a lot of his helpful, kind and patient nature," reminisces the actor who also worked with the director on his last venture, Operation Parindey.

The making of the 2020 film that released on Zee 5 was testing times just before the pandemic. Dev recalls, "We had gone to Punjab to shoot it. Seeing him direct, I used to wonder why he wasn't doing work more prolifically. He was too good a director to have done only that number of films. After all, he had made films like Dhoom and Dhoom 2."

The actor reveals that the director connected with him for their third project together. "He was dabbling with another interesting subject. Unfortunately, it didn't see the light of day as he couldn't start it."

Dev shares that the most incredible aspect about Gadhvi as a director was his sense of shot-taking. "We've seen both, Dhoom and Dhoom 2. I worked with him on a big budget film like Kidnap and a small-budgeted project like Operation Parindey, in which the crane shot is enough to tell you how he knew what to make and how to mount it. He was tech-savvy to make small films look like they were made on a big scale."

The actor shared that the director was a very nice and kind guy. "Often times, people say good things about those after they are no longer around us. Gadhvi was one of those genuinely nice guys everyone spoke good about all the time."