Prateek Tanmay
3 min readMumbaiJul 30, 2026 12:43 PM IST
Actor Sanjay Dutt has rarely spoken at length about his parents in public. Despite his larger-than-life on-screen persona, the actor has often kept his emotions private. However, in a recent interview, he opened up about one of the most painful chapters of his life, the death of his mother, legendary actor Nargis, whose passing came just days before he was set to make his acting debut.
‘It was a very traumatic time’
Speaking on the AIG Hospitals YouTube channel, Sanjay recalled Nargis’ battle with pancreatic cancer and the emotional toll it took on their family. “So, mom died of cancer, unfortunately, pancreatic cancer. This was in the early ‘80s, so even the technology we have today wasn’t available back then. There was this massive surgery that was done. We went to New York and got it done at Sloan Kettering.”
He continued, “There were a lot of complications with her. I was very young then, about 19 or 20. To see my mother go through all of that, we donated platelets, did everything we could. My sisters were younger than me, and it was a very traumatic time.” Sanjay also reflected on the difficult decision his father, Sunil Dutt, made while Nargis was hospitalised. With his debut film Rocky nearing release, Sunil insisted that he return to complete work on the film, even as his mother remained in a coma.
“My film was about to release as well, so that was another pressure. My father sent me back to complete the film while my mother was in a coma. At that time, I just couldn’t understand it, why complete the film when my mother was in a coma? But anyway, I did that and came back.” Remembering his mother’s final days, Sanjay said, “I saw her fighting. I think she just wanted to come back home somehow. She kept fighting until she came back, and once she was home, she gave up the fight. We lost her after she returned here.”
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‘Sunil Dutt was a strict father’
During the same conversation, Sanjay also spoke about his father, the late Sunil Dutt, and the values he inherited from him. Calling him a strict parent, the actor said, “He was a strict father. And I think all the values that we have today came from him, the values of respecting seniors, older people, doctors. Even if the doctor is junior to me, I still respect them because they’re my doctor.”
Nargis died of pancreatic cancer in 1981 at the age of 51, just days before the release of Rocky, Sanjay Dutt’s debut film. Sunil Dutt passed away following a heart attack in 2005 at the age of 75. On the work front, Sanjay was last seen in the two-part franchise Dhurandhar, directed by Aditya Dhar.
