"It was not his time to go” was the sentiment echoed across the Hindi film industry following filmmaker Sanjay Gupta’s accidental death at his Mumbai residence. The 57-year-old filmmaker suffered a head injury after accidentally falling in his kitchen on Friday (October 30). Friends and collaborators remembered his spirited nature and passion for cinema.

Shabana Azmi, who co-produced the 2007 anthology Dus Kahaaniyan with Gupta and later acted in his Jazbaa (2015), said she could not believe she was speaking about him in the past tense. “On the sets, he gave a lot of freedom to his actors after giving them an outline of what he had in mind. He was positive, always enthusiastic, and a very good producer. Sanjay was always full of stories and a keen cineaste,” Azmi told mid-day.