The Sanjay Dutt Story

The verdict is out. Sanjay Dutt, one of the leading actors of Bollywood – has been granted interim bail. Dutt, 48, was convicted on 31st July 2007 by the Bombay High Court for possessing illegal arms during the Mumbai 1993 bomb blasts that killed 257 and wounded 713 people.

Dutt, who debuted in the year 1981 with the film ‘Rocky’, is the son of the late actor-politician Sunil Dutt and his enigmatic wife, actress Nargis – a legendary beauty and a great actress of her time, most remembered for her role in ‘Mother India’.

Dutt is known as the proverbial bad boy of the Indian film industry. He has been in the limelight as much for his films, as for his supposed links with the Mumbai underworld. He is also said to have links with underworld dons in Dubai.

There have been more lows in his life than highs. He has gone through some tough times but has always emerged stronger and wiser. The year he debuted, he lost his mother to cancer. Around the same time, he was fighting his own battle against drug addiction. It took him nine long years to rid himself of drugs, but at the end he did it.

He went through two failed marriages. His first wife, soon after the birth of their daughter, was diagnosed with cancer, and she along with her daughter went back to her parents in the US.

She eventually succumbed to a brain tumor, and Dutt lost a bitter custody war with his in-laws which resulted in his daughter continuing to live in the US with her grand-parents. It is easy to see that Dutt’s life has never been a bed of roses – in fact far from it!

In April 1993, he was arrested for the alleged possession of illegal arms during the Mumbai blasts. The film fraternity in Mumbai, however, is a force to reckon with it. They rallied around Sanjay, but it was not until Sanjay had spent eighteen long months in prison that he was finally allowed to walk free – though under bail.

In India where the judiciary process is painfully slow, the hearing for the Mumbai blasts accused finally came to court in the year 2007. On July 31st, 2007, the Bombay High Court awarded six year rigorous imprisonment to Dutt. It was a big blow not only for the film fraternity and Dutt’s family members, but also the general public, who have come to love Dutt despite his faults.

The film industry has currently almost six million pounds riding on him. Their power in India was again evident when they voiced their unhappiness regarding the verdict, but the Judiciary put an end to all that when it termed such opinions as Contempt of Court.

Once more Dutt faced the interiors of a jail, now not as someone under trial, but as a convict. There was no special treatment meted out for him and he had to eat the jail food, sleep on a blanket and share a bathroom.

Sanjay Dutt’s woes can rest for the time being. On the 20th of August 2007 the Supreme Court of India granted him interim bail. Once he walked out on bail there were eager police constables waiting to shake hands with him. What’s more, one guard who was so overwhelmed that he hugged the star. The prison authorities have not taken kindly to this sort of ‘adulation’. They have promptly suspended the guard who had hugged Sanjay, and have asked the eight other constables who shook hands with Sanjay to explain themselves. 

Sanjay Dutt now can breathe easy for a month. Those who know Sanjay and have followed his career closely would vouch for the fact that one can never write off Sanjay Dutt. He may be down and out at the moment, but he would spring back to his larger than life persona before you can even bat an eye-lid.