Sanjay Dutt garnered appreciation
from all quarters for his wicked smile, puffed-up eyes and malicious appearance
in ‘Agneepath’. However, he admits that his 'villainous' act scared him as
well. In Karan Johar's Agneepath, Sanjay essays the role of the villainous Kancha,
a reprisal of the equally villainous ‘Kancha Cheena’ made notorious by the
inimitable Danny Denzongpa in the original movie, while Hrithik Roshan reprises the role of Vijay Dinanath Chauhan.
Dutt’s Kancha is shown as a
wicked bald man who dons a black Dhoti Kurta, with an overpowering physique,
tattoos on his arms, a silver ring on top of his left ear and sporting a black Dhoti
Kurta. This menacing look of Sanjay Dutt in the film was painstakingly created
to meet the director’s expectations. Karan Malhotra admits that Kancha’s
look was designed keeping Marlon Brando’s ‘Apocalypse Now’s’ bald look in mind,
Sanjay however respectfully disagrees. Other than the earrings that Brando’s
Colonel Walter E Kurtz doesn’t wear Sanjay points out that Kancha doesn’t even
have eyebrows and eyelashes. Sanjay was initially supposed to go in for
prosthetics but when the make-up started melting in the heat of Diu, he decided
to shave his head for the first time in his life.
The bald look instantly became an
eye catcher in the film’s first promos, as did the dialogue, ‘Vijay Deenanath
Chauhan ko marna padega’ (Vijay Deenanath Chauhan has to die), followed by vile
laughter. Dutt admits that he was inspired by Jack Nicholson’s Joker in Batman
and it was on his mind when he was working on Kancha‘s laugh. In an interview,
Sanjay also admitted that during dubbing for the film he needed to take a break
because he couldn’t see himself like this, his own portrayal of Kancha left him
disturbed! Sanjay says, “Our film is not a remake but a tribute to Agneepath
and its director Mukul Anand. It’s Karan Malhotra’s vision and story. It took
guts for a debutant director to take on an iconic film, but he’s come through
with flying colours. He even made life simple for me by sketching out Kancha
perfectly.”
