Sanju: Is Sonam Kapoor playing Sanjay Dutt's first wife Richa Sharma in the Ranbir Kapoor starrer biopic?

Ranbir Kapoor's upcoming film Sanju, which is a biopic on popular Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, has been grabbing the eyeballs ever since Ranbir began shooting for it. Now that the film's teaser, trailer and a few songs are out, the curiosity of the fans is at an all time high. One of the many scenes that became the talking point from the Sanju trailer was the one which reveals that there have been about 350 women in Sanjay Dutt's life. While there's still a lot of intrigue about which of these 350 women has been played by Sonam Kapoor aka Sonam K Ahuja (who also appears in the trailer as one of his girlfriends and later, probably as his wife), the makers have maintained that Sonam's character is not based on any one particular woman in Dutt's life.

In fact, director Rajkumar Hirani during the promotional interviews of Sanju, had shared that Sonam's character is an amalgamation of the traits of several women in Dutt's life and doesn't point to any one particular person. However, there are a few giveaways in the trailer itself, particularly, the scene in which Sonam's character can be seen asking Ranbir's "Where is my mangalsutra?" which might have a different story to tell. While Dia Mirza is said to be palying Dutt's third wife Maanayata Dutt, it's not made clear who Sonam is playing in the film, since Dutt was married thrice - first to Richa Sharma, then to Rhea Pillai and third time to Maanayata. 

Our math suggests that Sonam's character in Sanju comes very close to that of Sanjay Dutt's first wife Richa Sharma. Why do we say so? Well, let's go back to the Sanju trailer and correspond the timelines with the life of Dutt for starters. 

It's pretty evident from the scene in the Sanju trailer where Sonam's character asks Ranbir for her mangalsutra, that the incident is from the initial years of Dutt's life, probably from the time soon after he forayed into movies (check Ranbir's hairstyle in the scene, which reminds us Sanjay Dutt's look during his initial years in Bollywood, sometime around mid or late 1980s). 

Now, as per Yasser Usman's biography of the actor titled, Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy, Dutt first met Richa in the year 1985 and they tied the knot in New York, in October 1987. At the time, Dutt was reportedly 28 while Richa was 24 years-old. A closer look at Sonam's Kapoor's 'mangalsutra' scene too hints at Ranbir playing a 28-29 year old Dutt and Sonam playing a character aged 24-25 years.

Check out a few pictures of Richa Sharma for reference:

Notice the striking similarity in Sonam's hairstyle with that of Richa Sharma in this picture:

While other aspects of Sonam's character may have been derived from the many women in Dutt's life, including the actresses he's been linked with, the mangalsutra scene seems to point towards his first wife. Whether our guess is right or not, will be revealed on June 29, when Sanju will hit the theatres.  

(Images via YouTube Screengrab, Instagram)