'Peekay to Zanjeer': The Show Must Go On Without Sanjay Dutt

Sanjay Dutt’s sentence in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts announced by the Supreme Court on Thursday does not bode well for the film industry, especially for his friends and the various films he is a part of. The same happened to the actor when he was jailed right about the time of Khalnayak’s release back in 1993. Even though the actor has been given four weeks starting 21 March, 2013 to surrender, it is not sufficient time to wrap up his filming work on his to-be-released films.

Whilst he has completed work for some of the films like Rensil D’Silva’s Unglee, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, there will be repercussions on the films that are currently in the filming stages like the remake of Amitabh Bachchan’s 70s smash hit, Zanjeer, a supposed Rs 75 crore film, in which Dutt reprises the iconic role of Sher Khan, immortalized by the legendary Pran in the original. But the Zanjeer team is not too worried as they have two days of work left, namely dubbing and such with Dutt, and they hope to accomplish that before he goes to jail. Zanjeer also stars South actor, Ram Charan Teja and Priyanka Chopra in the lead parts and is scheduled to release in May this year.

Raj Kumar Hirani’s Peekay, on the other hand, starring Aamir Khan in the lead role and Dutt in a substantial one, is the worst hit so far, as it was scheduled for a 2014 release, prior to the sentencing of Dutt. Filming of Peekay is bound to face trouble.

Hirani, who conceptualized and directed the immensely popular film Munnabhai MBBS and its sequel, Lage Raho Munnabhai, is visibly upset, like the rest of Dutt’s friends and family who have expressed their angst on Twitter over Dutt’s court order on Thursday. Another Munnabhai film, the third one in the series of the successful franchise, starring Dutt, was being planned, but it just might have to wait till Dutt’s release now to take shape.

Dutt has also been filming for producer TP Agarwal’s Policegiri along with Prachi Desai in Mumbai’s Film City up until two days ago. The status of that film too now hangs in uncertainty, in the light of his jail sentence.

Most of these films are releasing in 2013, barring Peekay which is a 2014 release.

On the advertising front, Dutt made his grand debut with the Gitanjali Group along with his wife Manyaata to endorse four of their brands. Mehul Choksi of the Gitanjali Group, is undeterred by Dutt’s sentence and has no plans to pull off the commercials and print ads the actor did with his wife, Manyaata for Gitanjali, Sangini, Rotary watches and Jewelsouk. “We are very appreciative of Sanjay Dutt’s work and we will continue running the ads, as is. We are not going to pull the ads off air. Sanjay is a wonderful actor and people will not stop watching his movies,” said Mehul Choksi.

Understandably, none of the producers and directors of his current lot of films want to talk about the fiscal impact his sentence will have on their projects, given it is a trying time for the actor and his family. Till Sanjay Dutt serves his time in jail and comes back to the arc lights, all the above films will release without him, if some of them don’t shuffle the cast altogether. It is business after all, that too show business.