Sanjay Gupta, the Hindi filmmaker behind 'Kaante,' 'Shootout at Wadala' and the Hrithik Roshan-starring 'Kaabil,' died on October 30 after falling at his Mumbai residence.

Director Milap Zaveri, a longtime friend who worked on the dialogue for 'Kaante,' confirmed the death to the Press Trust of India, saying Gupta 'fell and hit his head.'

Per Variety, Mumbai's Versova police filed an accidental death report, with Deputy Commissioner Purushottam Karad telling the Free Press Journal that family members were sleeping when the incident occurred and learned of it the following morning; the family has not raised any suspicion.

Deadline reports Gupta slipped in his kitchen, sustained a serious head injury and later succumbed to it.

Gupta built his reputation on glossy, action-driven Hindi crime thrillers, bringing a visual sensibility the outlets describe as heavily indebted to Hollywood to an industry long dominated by melodrama and musicals.

Variety notes his career began with 'Aatish: Feel the Fire' in 1994 and that his partnership with Sanjay Dutt spanned ten films.

His biggest success came with 2002's Los Angeles-set heist thriller 'Kaante,' starring Amitabh Bachchan, Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Lucky Ali and Kumar Gaurav, which earned him a Filmfare best director nomination.

Deadline calls him a modern master of neo-noir underworld thrillers, citing 'Shootout at Lokhandwala,' 'Musafir,' 'Zinda' and 'Mumbai Saga' among his credits.

He told Rediff in 2002 he would 'beg, borrow and steal from any medium' for a compelling story, a philosophy that drew 'Reservoir Dogs' comparisons to 'Kaante' — and controversy when 'Zinda' resembled Park Chan-wook's 'Oldboy.'

But the surprise, per Deadline, is that Tarantino himself was flattered: at the 2007 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles he called 'Kaante' 'fabulous,' saying 'of the many rip-offs, I loved... this one, Kaante. The best part is, you have Indian guys coming to the US and looting a US bank.

How cool is that! I was truly honoured.'

The industry response was immediate and personal.

Sanjay Dutt, Gupta's most frequent collaborator, posted that Gupta was 'family' and that he still could not believe he was gone; Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty called him 'one of the sanest voices from mainstream Hindi cinema' after 25 years of working together.

Rahul Dholakia credited Gupta on X as 'maybe the first to present trailers and cut promos to pitch the film idea to actors and distributors,' while Kunal Kohli recalled a conversation just weeks before the death.

According to NationPath, Fardeen Khan, Ronit Roy, Rakesh Roshan and Gulshan Grover visited his residence, and last rites were held at Pawan Hans Crematorium on October 31.

He is survived by his wife Anuradha Lekhi Gupta and children Shivaansh and Dalai Gupta, per Deadline.

The unfinished business is tantalizing for fans: Variety reports that after resolving a dispute between White Feather Films and Pritish Nandy Communications over 'Kaante,' Gupta said on the 'InControversial' podcast earlier this year that he had developed the story for 'Kaante 2' 'at a very base level' and intended to begin writing the screenplay.

Police, per NationPath, continue examining the circumstances of the fall.