Sanjay Dutt Sends Legal Notice to Juggernaut for Book on His Life

According to Dutt, his lawyers have already sent a legal notice to Juggernaut Books.

Sanjay Dutt isn’t happy with his unauthorised biography published by Juggernaut Books. 

(Photo: Yogen Shah)

Sanjay Dutt has shared on social media that his biography, Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy, has not been authorised by him and that he would be taking legal action against author Yasser Usman and Juggernaut Books, the publisher.

The publishers released a statement after Sanjay Dutt announced on Twitter about his plans to sue them as well as the writer.

We are sorry to hear that Mr Sanjay Dutt was upset by our book on him. The author, Yasser Usman, an award-winning journalist and reputed writer on Bollywood actors, is a fan and very sympathetic to Mr Dutt. Yasser has chosen his sources and materials with care. He has relied extensively on direct quotes from Mr Dutt, his close associates such as Mr Mahesh Bhatt, and members of the Dutt family. Additionally, Yasser has referred to stories already in the public record for many years that were uncontested and widely reported. 

The publishers further added:

“These stories that have appeared in leading film periodicals have relied on accounts of credible and authoritative sources, people who have either worked closely with or been associated in various capacities with Mr Dutt. The book has been painstakingly footnoted, and the sources the book has relied upon have clearly been mentioned.Moreover, as has been said in most of Yasser’s interviews and pieces in the press, he is a huge admirer of Mr Dutt’s honesty and lack of pretense and believes these qualities meaningfully set him apart from the rest of the film industry. The book is a homage to those admirable and rare traits of honesty and frankness. However, to pay respect to Mr Dutt’s wishes, we won’t put out any more extracts from the book in short-form media”.

According to Dutt, his lawyers have already sent a legal notice to Juggernaut, who has responded by saying that the book is based on information available in the “public domain”. Dutt says that excerpts from the book, which have appeared in several publications, are based on some old interviews but largely hearsay, gossip magazines and the like.

Sanjay Dutt tweeted: “I hope better sense will prevail and there will be no further excerpts that will hurt me or my family. My official autobiography will be out soon which will be authentic and based on facts.”

A cover of Yasser Usman’s book Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy.  

The actor has requested everyone to wait for the authorised biography that would contain “facts”.