The filmmaker achieved one of his biggest successes with “Kaante” in 2002, assembling Amitabh Bachchan, Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Lucky Ali and Kumar Gaurav for a Los Angeles-set heist thriller about a group of criminals planning a bank robbery. The production was filming in the city when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, forced changes to its location schedule, as Gupta recounted in a Rediff interview the following year.
Colleagues remembered Gupta’s contributions to the industry’s visual and promotional vocabulary. “Raees” director Rahul Dholakia described him on X as a stylish filmmaker and “maybe the first to present trailers and cut promos to pitch the film idea to actors and distributors.”
Dutt posted: “Gupts, my brother. I still cannot believe that you are gone. We have shared so much together, so many memories and so many years of friendship. You have always been family to me, and that will never change. I will miss you, our conversations and all the times we spent together.”
Sound designer Resul Pookutty, Oscar winner for “Slumdog Millionaire,” wrote: “What a terrible and shocking news for me personally and our friends and family. 25 Years of working together. I’m not able to process this… we will miss you, one of the sanest voices from mainstream Hindi cinema… May your soul rest in eternal peace.”
Gupta is survived by his wife and two children.
