Shatrughan Sinha has described a frightening late night incident in New York, saying he was alone on an empty street and feared for his life until a stranger recognised him from the Punjabi film 'Putt Jattan De' and stepped in.
What happened in New York
In a recent interview with Aaj Tak, Sinha shared, “I was staying at the Radisson Hotel in New York.” He recalled being invited to dinner and returning late, when it was the peak era of mugging in the city. “It was around 1 am, and the area was completely deserted,” he said.
After dinner, he said his friend dropped him near the hotel but not at the entrance. "She dropped me a little ahead of the Radisson Hotel and said, ‘That’s the hotel, you can walk from here,’” he recalled. “I agreed. I got down.”
Sinha said he was carrying a shopping bag filled with items, basically everything that could attract a mugger, and noticed how quiet it was the moment the car pulled away. “I was alone on the street, and there was complete silence,” he said.
Then he realised he was not where he thought he was. “After my friend left, I realised it wasn’t the hotel. All the buildings there look the same, and I became extremely nervous,” he said. “I genuinely felt that this could be the night something terrible would happen.” He added, “I thought, ‘This could be the night I get killed.’”
He tried asking for directions. “A black man was walking by, and I asked him which side the Radisson Hotel was on. He just said, ‘Get lost,’” Sinha said. “It was around 2 am by then.” Moments later, he said, “Suddenly, a car started approaching while I stood there, almost waiting for my death on that dark street.”
How 'Putt Jattan De' led to help
Sinha said the car stopped nearby and his fear spiked. “I thought, ‘This is it. This is my end,’” he recalled. “The car reversed,” and he heard a voice ask, “Putt Jattan De?” He said the person then told him, “Stop right there.”
What happened next, Sinha said, was unexpected. “The driver asked me, ‘What are you doing here? You could get killed. This is unbelievable,’” he recalled. The driver used his radio, and soon, Sinha said, “about 20–25 cars arrived.”
“They were all our people from Punjab, our Sikh brothers,” he said. “They surrounded me from all sides and told me not to panic.” He recalled them saying, “‘This is a very dangerous area, but we recognised you,’” before they safely dropped him at his hotel.
When Sinha offered money, he said they refused. “They said, ‘Not at all. You are our hero. You are Putt Jattan De,’” he recalled. “I never saw them again after that.”
In the same interview, Sinha also spoke about Dharmendra, saying, “We did many films together and were very close friends,” and adding, “If he was doing a film, it was almost necessary for me to be part of it.” He said 'Putt Jattan De' came to him through that bond: “It was a Punjabi film, and I did it at his insistence.”
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