JOIN USWhile movies like “Zanjeer” and “Peekay” are awaiting a final wrap up, the Supreme Court (SC) verdict on Thursday upholding Sanjay Dutt’s conviction under the Arms Act has put at stake a whopping Rs 250 crore on his movies.
The court has given him four weeks to complete the remaining jail sentence of three-and-a-half years. This implies that he will have to finish all shootings within these four weeks.
Trade analyst Amod Mehra said: “ Films worth approximately Rs 250 crore were under production, but money is not a question here. It is a big jolt to the industry.
Everyone had forgotten about the charges and the verdict has come as a rude awakening to the industry.”
However, Dutt’s conviction is unlikely to give the director of the new version of “Zanjeer”, Apoorva Lakhia, sleepless nights as the film is almost ready for release in May and is in the post-production stage.
Similarly, Dutt has finished shooting for Rajkumar Hirani’s Peekay, and Rajkumar Gupta’s “Ghanchakkar”. Peekay is scheduled for release in 2014, while Ghanchakkar, will be out in June-July.
There are films like Karan Johar’s “Unglee”, which is 25-30 per cent done, Mehra said. The fate of “Policegiri” is unclear. The film is believed to be left with two weeks of shooting in Hyderabad and Chennai, sources said.
But, the third instalment in the “Munnabhai” series (Munnabhai Chale Dilli), will either have to be deferred or made with a new star cast.
At the same time, the conviction will hit his future brand endorsements. Dutt, along with his second wife Manyata, were endorsing a slew of jewellery products from the Gitanjali Group including Sangini diamond jewellery and Rotary watches. They had also done some ads for Gitanjali’s retail store “JewelSouk”.
Dutt’s asking price for appearing in ads with Manyata was said to be in the region of about Rs 1 to Rs 1.2 crore.
Though experts concede that Dutt was not in the “A” list of brand endorsers like Amitabh Bachhan or Sharukh Khan, yet his ads along with his wife had an impact.
With the verdict, advertisers who were contemplating to feature the Dutt couple might reconsider their decision.
Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Consults said: “Brand endorsements is about free souls, not those who have issues bothering them. Sending Dutt back to jail will not only mean that his film career will be derailed, but his brand endorsement will also take a beating.”
However, Mehul Choksi, MD of Gitanjali Group said he had no plans to discontinue the ads. “Sanjay is very popular with the masses, and if you recall, when he was sent to jail earlier for 18-months, there was a huge sympathy wave that he rode. This helped him to bounce back. This episode will not tarnish his image,” he said.