Anupam Kher & Sanjay Dutt Movies Together List — 16 Films

The shape of the work

The 1980s belonged to Kabzaa; the 2010s to Lamhaa. Anupam Kher acted in every film; Sanjay Dutt acted in all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Their first film together, Khatarnaak (1990), was a flop. But Sanjay Dutt personally asked director Rajkumar Kohli to cast Anupam Kher in Gumrah (1993) because he liked working with him. That second film became a hit and locked them as a pair.
• In Yeh Hai Jalwa (2002), Anupam Kher played Sanjay Dutt's father — even though Kher is only 8 years older. The comedy worked because Kher played the straight-laced, disapproving dad while Dutt leaned into his goofy, larger-than-life energy. Kher set the rhythm; Dutt provided the volume.
• Anupam Kher was one of the few industry friends who visited Sanjay Dutt in jail during his legal troubles in the 2000s. Kher later said in interviews that he never judged Dutt and that their bond was beyond films.
• Their 2011 film Desi Boyz was the first time both actors played against their usual image — Kher as a flamboyant gay man and Dutt as a struggling husband. The film didn't set the box office on fire, but it directly inspired a wave of buddy comedies that followed, like Happy New Year (2014).
• In Lamhaa (2010), a serious Kashmir drama, Dutt played a RAW agent and Kher played a local politician. The tension between them wasn't written — it came from Dutt's real-life intensity and Kher's ability to match it with quiet menace. Director Rahul Dholakia said they barely spoke off-camera during the shoot to keep the friction real.