Priya Dutt, daughter of the legendary Sunil Dutt and Nargis, opened up about the deeply emotional and harrowing days following her mother’s death. Nargis, who passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer, left behind a family shaken to its core. Priya, who was just 14 at the time, remembers how the trauma not only devastated her father but also reshaped the lives of her siblings, including actor Sanjay Dutt.
“My mom wanted to be buried in her family kabristan”
Speaking about the immediate aftermath to Vickey Lalwani, Priya recalled, “My mom wanted to be buried in her family kabristan. We took her to Haridwar too, mitti leke, with dad. When we brought her body home, there was all this press around, and someone asked me how I was feeling. I must have said something, because Papa took us to a room and told us that if we want to cry and scream, we should do it with him, but outside, we must maintain our composure.”
“My father was a broken man. He couldn’t do basic things.”
She described how her father, once a pillar of strength, became emotionally hollow. “My father was a broken man. He couldn’t do basic things. He would wake up at night and go to the kabristan alone. He would sit there next to her grave… sometimes even at 3 in the morning. That’s how much he loved her,” Priya said, her voice filled with emotion.
But grief didn’t just weigh down Sunil Dutt—it also pushed Sanjay Dutt into deeper despair, as Priya explained while talking about his time in rehab. “It was a grim situation. Mom’s passing had taken a toll on him. She always told him, ‘The movie has to release no matter what, I’ll come even on a stretcher.’ But she passed away just three days before Rocky released.”
Voice note that cracked Sanjay’s numbness
What truly cracked Sanjay Dutt’s shell of numbness was a voice from the past—literally. Priya revealed, “My father had recorded mom’s conversations in the hospital. He gave one of those tapes to the counsellor. One day in a meeting, they played the recording. It was mom speaking to him. That was the moment of catharsis. Sanjay broke down completely… and everything changed after that.”
