MUMBAI, JULY 31: The 14-year wait is over but not on a note that would cheer Bollywood. The six-year sentence for Sanjay Dutt has left the film fraternity grappling with its likely monetary consequences.
After the roaring success of Munnabhai MBBS, Dutt’s born-again star status had producers and directors making a beeline to sign him for big projects. And he has several of them in the wings. There are Abbas-Mustan’s Mr Fraud, Sanjay Gadhvi’s Kidnap and Sanjay Gupta’s Alibaug and Dus Kahaniyan. In Hansal Mehta’s Woodstock Villa, also a Gupta production, Dutt makes a guest appearance. Two more Munnabhai films are also waiting.
“Sanjay has about Rs 100 crore riding on him,” said trade analyst Taran Adarsh. While the actor had just started shooting for Alibaug, he was half way through with Mr Fraud and Kidnap.
In most cases, the directors and producers are ready to stall their productions as a gesture of solidarity towards their dear friend and superstar.
“There will be no Alladin without Sanjay Dutt. I’ll wait for him,” said director Sujoy Ghosh who was supposed to direct the lavish fairy tale film with Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Riteish Deshmukh in the lead.
“At present, I’m more concerned and upset by the fact that a dear family member is going to jail,” said Gupta.
The status of Mr Fraud, which had already been delayed with the shooting dates coinciding with Dutt’s court case hearings, becomes all the more uncertain. “We could not make much progress with the shooting because of Sanjay’s court case,” Mustan had said.
Meanwhile, Dutt also has two old releases coming up in the next few months: Both Indra Kumar’s Dhamaal, which also features Arshad Warsi and Deshmukh, and Afzal Khan’s Mehbooba with Ajay Devgan and Manisha Koirala, are long overdue. “However, the fate of these movies are not likely to be affected by Dutt’s sentence,” Adarsh said.
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