Bollywood’s most controversial superstar Sanjay Dutt is in trouble again. This time he has done nothing to bring it on to himself. Controversy’s favourite child Dutt, age 60, has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
As he prepares to take a sabbatical from acting there is prevalent panic, not only about his pending work(he has three forthcoming films in various stages of production) but also the way 2020 is taking the Hindi film industry. This year Bollywood has already lost several of its luminaries including Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor.
“If we make it through this year it will be a miracle. One after the other so many of our film industry’s loved ones are leaving us. Sanju(Sanjay Dutt) is a warrior. He will defeat this adversity,” says seasoned director J P Dutta who has worked in the epic saga Kshatriya and the war epic LOC Kargil with Sanjay Dutt.
Dutt’s life is a litany of adversity. From the age of 1981 when he lost his mother the legendary Nargis Dut to cancer , waywardness became a way of life for Dutt. After his mother’s death Dutt was heavily into drugs which caused his lungs to collapse. This could have been the starting point for his lung problems which have now reached a point of no return.
In 1983 he was arrested under the TADA act. He eventually served a 5-year term and came out in 2016 hoping to finally lead a normal life with his devoted wife Maanyata and his twin children.
Fate, it seems had other plans. The cancer diagnosis has devastated Dutt. At the moment all he wants is to be reunited with his wife and children who are stranded in Dubai since the lockdown.
I remember Sanjay Dutt once telling me, “I was out control as a child. And I take responsibility for what happened to me . I was in and out of jail. Today my tomorrows don’t seem to be that insecure. I sleep better.”
I am sure the actor will weather this storm as well.
