Drug abuse, losing a parent and a wife to cancer, and spending time in jail after his arrest in the 1993 serial blasts case — one would have thought Sanjay Dutt had faced all the upheavals that life had in store for him.
But on Tuesday, as he faced Judge P D Kode in a crowded courtroom, all his past struggles must have come rushing back to the 48-year-old actor as he was given a six-year jail term for his conviction under the Arms Act.
From the time he made his debut in Bollywood with Rocky as a lanky 22-year-old in 1981, Dutt has been in the news more for his tryst with drugs, his two marriages, (to Richa Sharma who died of a brain tumour and model Rhea Pillai, whom he divorced), and his role in the 1993 serial blasts case for which he spent 18 months in jail.
The image of a stringy haired, haggard-looking Dutt emerging from Arthur Road Jail with his father Sunil Dutt became one of the defining images of the coverage of the case.
From then on, Dutt’s life was inextricably linked to the case. Once out of jail, he tried to resurrect his flagging career, appearing in hits like Vaastav and the hugely successful Lage Raho Munnabhai.
But the trial and its likely ending was always on his mind, as he has confessed to close friends many a time.
Lack of judgment
Through all his upheavals, which his friends say happened because of his lack of judgment, Dutt was protected by his very vocal family — father Sunil Dutt when he was alive and later his sisters Priya and Namrata.
“Sanju Baba”, as he is popularly known in the film industry, seems like an “overgrown child”,  who is pure at heart and means no harm but sometimes can’t help but get into mischief, say his friends.
It is this innocent and childlike quality in him that perhaps led to the enormous success of the two Munnabhai movies. After all, his character in these movies is that of a criminal, a don with a heart of gold, who does wrong but also wins over people with his good deeds.
When he came out of rehabilitation for drug abuse, Dutt exhorted youngsters not to go the same way and recalled the days when he would lie wasted with drugs.
Dutt’s Bollywood career too has been lined with uncertainties, following a up-and-down graph in tandem with the personal tragedies in his life.
Career peak
Dutt followed up his super hit debut Rocky with films like Naam, but it was only after his release from jail in 1994 that he peaked as an actor, delivering a powerhouse performance in Subhash Ghai’s aptly titled Khalnayak.
Dutt’s career had taken off in recent years and the Munnabhai series cemented his position as one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars with a fan following that rivals that of the Khans and the Bachchans.
A lot of the goodwill Dutt has managed to garner in and outside the film industry was largely due to the adulation his father Sunil Dutt enjoyed. Even his release from jail in 1994 is largely credited to the fact that Sunil Dutt met Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, whose party was part of the state goverment at the time.
As he faces a prison term, Dutt will have a lot of people to thank for his last decade of freedom, most of all his late father, who always stood by his sometimes misguided son.