Mumbai: Sanjay Dutt’s wife and actress Maanayata Dutt was born July 22, 1978 in a Muslim family.
The actress’s original name is Dilnawaz Shaikh. She was brought up in Dubai. When Maanayata entered the film industry she changed her name to Sarah Khan, but after doing an item number in Prakash Jha’s ‘Gangaajal’ she again changed her mind.
Maanayata is currently the CEO of Sanjay Dutt Productions. She handles all the work of Sanjay. Maanayata shot to fame when she did item number ‘Alhad Mast Jawani Bemisaal’ in ‘Gangajal’.
Maanayata’s father was a businessman in Dubai and after his demise, all the responsibilities of the house fell on her. That’s where she got a break from the film industry and started focusing more on her family business.
Maanayata wanted to be a successful heroine. But she never got a big movie offer. So she stared working in B and C-Grade films. She believed that after featuring in a Prakash Jha film, she will start getting more offers but nothing like that happened.
Her fate changed when Sanjay bought the rights of a C-Grade film ‘Lovers Like Us’ for Rs 20 lakh. This is when Sanjay met Maanayata for the first time.
During those days, Sanjay was dating a junior artist named Nadia Durrani. Whenever Nadia was out of town, Maanayata reached Sanjay’s house to meet him.
On one side there was Nadia who always shopped on Sanjay’s credit card. On the other hand, there was Maanayata who never asked anything from him. This was the reason why Sanjay had an inclination towards Maanayata. In the year 2008, the couple got married. At that time, the actress was 29 years old while Sanjay was 50.
Sanjay’s family opposed their marriage due to the age difference of 20 years. Maanayata was only a few years older than Sanjay’s daughter Trishala.
But Sanjay had full confidence in Maanayata. She gave birth to twins in the year 2010 and now they are spending their lives happily.
PNN/Agencies