Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 30, 2015)

What would have been just another Bollywood thriller catapulted into something bigger when Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino named Kaante as his favourite rip-off. The film was an adaptation of his 1992 crime drama, Reservoir Dogs. It featured Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Suneil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Lucky Ali and Kumar Gaurav as the six bank robbers who pull off a perfect heist only to discover that one of them is an undercover cop.

Now, writer-director-producer, Sanjay Gupta, has confirmed the he is making a sequel to his 2002 film which will once again star Sanjay Dutt. "Kaante was a dream Sanju and I shared which the late Raju Patel, (a Los Angeles-based producer and owner of Film Club) helped realise. The sequel is definitely happening, but not without Sanju," Gupta told Mirror.

After Patel's death, it was reported that Pritish Nandy Communications (the third producer of the original), White Feather Films and Film Club, USA, were all battling for the rights to the film's sequel.

Gupta dismisses these reports saying, "I was the writer-director-producer of Kaante. We filmed most of the sequences in LA, under Raju Patel's roof. I have the IPR of the film and I have already spoken about rolling out with Kaante 2 with Raju's brother, Viju Patel. We've agreed that once Sanju is out, we will make the film."

He informs that he has been exchanging letters Dutt who also starred in in other films he has directed, including Zinda, Musafir and Shootout At Wadala. The two had a fallout but then recoinciled. Pointing out that the actor is aware of his keenness to work with him again, Gupta added, "I've just finished writing a letter to Sanju. We are very much in touch and still thick. Kaante 2 will happen only once he is out." Kaante was the first Hindi film to be shot in LA and was also the Film Club's first investment in a Bollywood project.