When Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt walked to freedom emerging from a
prison in western Indian city of Pune on Thursday after serving out his
jail-term in a deadly bomb blast case, he saluted the soil outside the
prison gate and the prison itself before boarding a vehicle. Among a
handful of persons waiting for him were his wife Mannayata and
director-producer Rajkumar Hirani, the man whose “Munnabhai MBBS”
starring Dutt was a superhit movie.
56-year-old Dutt's salutations were reciprocated in equal measure by
the entire Hindi film industry who welcomed him back into mainstream
life saying a grand second innings awaits him on the big screen.
Bollywood insiders say the film industry hopes to ride on Dutt for
big bucks from films starring him, and new projects have already been
lined up.
The first film that will come out is an action-thriller directed by
Siddharth Anand, who had made “Bang Bang” starring Hrithik Roshan and
Katrina Kaif. The new film, to be shot across six countries, is expected
to go on the floor this summer.
Hirani has already confirmed that he is working on another sequel —
the third one — to “Munnabhai MBBS.” Hirani is also making a biopic on
Dutt, which has Ranbir Kapoor in lead role.
Besides, filmmakers Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Umesh Shukla, maker of “Oh My God”, also plan to make films featuring Dutt.
Director Rohit Shetty says Dutt has a certain role etched out for him
in films and it is a matter of time when he will be flooded with
offers.
Bollywood grapevine is also buzzing that veteran Subhash Ghai and
Sanjay Gupta are also planning sequels to “Khalnayak” and “Kaante” with
Dutt.
