{"id":36343,"date":"2026-09-07T15:17:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T09:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/sanjay-dutt-marathi-language-controversy\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T15:17:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T09:47:39","slug":"sanjay-dutt-marathi-language-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/sanjay-dutt-marathi-language-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanjay Dutt Marathi Language Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"\">\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124546_880_1788765451138.gif\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124546_880_1788765451138.gif\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124546_880_1788765451138.gif\" alt=\"Sanjay Dutt had arrived at a Dahi Handi event in Mumbai. - Bhaskar English\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p><span>Sanjay Dutt had arrived at a Dahi Handi event in Mumbai.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Amid the ongoing debate over the Marathi language in Maharashtra, actor Sanjay Dutt\u2019s comment about not speaking Marathi has sparked controversy. During a Dahi Handi event in Mumbai on Sunday, he said, \u201cI spent six years in Yerwada Jail, even then I could not learn the Marathi language.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:0\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Pratap Sarnaik asked Sanjay Dutt to speak in Marathi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">The event was organised by Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) leader and Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik in Thane. Sanjay Dutt was speaking in Hindi on stage when Sarnaik asked him to speak in Marathi. The 67-year-old actor jokingly refused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>BJP MLA targets minister over the issue<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:0\"\/><span style=\"font-size:0\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">BJP MLA Narendra Mehta criticised Pratap Sarnaik over the incident. He said that auto drivers are being pressured to speak Marathi, raising questions over whether the same pressure is being applied to others.<\/p>\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t123932_380_1788765430953.gif\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t123932_380_1788765430953.gif\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t123932_380_1788765430953.gif\" alt=\"Sanjay Dutt and Maharashtra Minister Pratap Sarnaik.\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p><span>Sanjay Dutt and Maharashtra Minister Pratap Sarnaik.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Sanjay Dutt jokes about not learning Marathi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Sanjay Dutt and Pratap Sarnaik were standing on stage when the minister joked about teaching everyone Marathi. He said, \u201cNowadays, I am teaching Marathi to everyone. So I thought, why don&#8217;t we have everyone talk to Sanjay Dutt in Marathi? He speaks in Hindi, but we all understand Marathi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">The comment brought smiles to those present on stage. Sanjay Dutt then took the microphone and first chanted, \u201cHar Har Mahadev.\u201d He jokingly replied, \u201cPratap bhai, I spent six years in jail, in Yerwada. Even then, I couldn&#8217;t learn Marathi. I only learned a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124355_227_1788765385356.gif\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124355_227_1788765385356.gif\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124355_227_1788765385356.gif\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>BJP MLA targets Shiv Sena minister<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Narendra Mehta raised questions against Pratap Sarnaik over Sanjay Dutt&#8217;s statement. Narendra Mehta said, &#8220;If an artist does not know Marathi, you laugh at them, but on the other hand, common rickshaw drivers are pressured regarding the Marathi language. What kind of justice is this? Eknath Shinde never let them do anything. A dummy minister is needed there, that is why they are there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Man pushes Sanjay Dutt at rally, actor pulls him by the hand<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">After spending some time on stage, Sanjay Dutt started to leave with his team. He was getting down when a man quickly pushed past him.<\/p>\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124207_789_1788765287001.gif\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124207_789_1788765287001.gif\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124207_789_1788765287001.gif\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Sanjay Dutt did not ignore this and grabbed the person&#8217;s hand and pulled him towards himself. As soon as the person saw that it was Sanjay Dutt, he immediately apologized.<\/p>\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124251_509_1788765312113.gif\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124251_509_1788765312113.gif\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/dbgifmagic_-_2026-09-07t124251_509_1788765312113.gif\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Trolled on social media over Marathi language remark<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Sanjay Dutt\u2019s refusal to speak in Marathi sparked a discussion on social media. One user wrote, \u201cOnly Sanjay Dutt or Salman Khan can refuse a minister like this and still smile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Another user said, \u201cThe meaning is clear, the mandatory use of the Marathi language is only for the city\u2019s auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, not for the big people.\u201d Someone else wrote, \u201cLook at the irony, I wish the city\u2019s auto drivers could also say this and avoid heavy fines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Some users also criticised Sanjay Dutt for not knowing Marathi. One user wrote, \u201cYou have lived in Maharashtra your whole life, yet you don\u2019t know Marathi. This is shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Sanjay Dutt\u2019s statements that sparked controversies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>1. 2009: statement about tada at election rally<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">During the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Sanjay Dutt campaigned for the Samajwadi Party. At an election rally in Mau, Uttar Pradesh, he spoke about the action taken against him following the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. While mentioning his father Sunil Dutt and mother Nargis, he said that his mother was Muslim and claimed this was the reason his family was harassed. He also spoke about the action taken against him under TADA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">His remarks sparked controversy, with the Election Commission taking cognisance of the statement. His comments were seen as having a communal context during the election campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>2. 2016: called Salman Khan \u2018arrogant\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan have shared a long-standing friendship, which made his 2016 comment about the actor particularly noteworthy. When asked to describe Salman in one word during an event, Sanjay called him \u201carrogant\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">The remark led to speculation about a possible rift between the two. Sanjay later clarified that there was no feud between them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>3. 2026: controversy over \u2018Dhurandhar\u2019 dialogue<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Sanjay Dutt also faced controversy over a dialogue delivered by his character, SP Chaudhary Aslam, in <em>Dhurandhar<\/em>. Members of the Baloch community objected to the dialogue, following which the portion was muted in the theatrical release version.<\/p>\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/main-image-credit---jio-studios_694140b684787_1788764834910.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/main-image-credit---jio-studios_694140b684787_1788764834910.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"899\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/07\/main-image-credit---jio-studios_694140b684787_1788764834910.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:0\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sanjay Dutt had arrived at a Dahi Handi event in Mumbai. Amid the ongoing debate over the Marathi language in Maharashtra, actor Sanjay Dutt\u2019s comment about not speaking Marathi has sparked controversy. During a Dahi Handi event in Mumbai on Sunday, he said, \u201cI spent six years in Yerwada Jail, even then I could not&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33586,24550,33585,31636,29867,23036,33587,29573],"class_list":["post-36343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7","tag-dahi-handi-event","tag-maharashtra-politics","tag-marathi-language","tag-mumbai-controversy","tag-pratap-sarnaik","tag-sanjay-dutt","tag-sanjay-dutt-statement","tag-shiv-sena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}