Munnabhai is not going to Amrika. At least not now. Special TADA judge PD Kode?s six-year prison sentence on Sanjay Dutt, convicted of illegally possessing ?dangerous? weapons in the 1993 Mumbai bombings, has made directors and producers put on the backburner movies centred on the actor. And there is a question mark on around Rs 100 crore riding on him.
Munnabhai-maker Raj Kumar Hirani?s third film in the series, Munnabhai Chale Amrika, will have to be put on hold as Dutt begins to serve his sentence. Three other films with Dutt in leading role and under production are at stake ? Alibaug, Mr Fraud, Kidnap. Some films announced with him like Alladin will not be made, says its director, Sujoy Ghosh. The film boasts of other leading names such as Amitabh Bachchan. Says trade analyst Taran Adarsh, ?Dutt has about Rs 100 crore riding on him.?
The Munnabhai films, in which Dutt played the lead, had sent the cash registers ringing for the producers. According to estimates, while Munnabhai MBBS collected Rs 7.44 crore at the box-office in just 10 weeks, its sequel Lage Raho Munnabhai grossed Rs 37.8 crore in 12 weeks. Both did very well in the international markets too.
Dutt?s recent release, Shootout at Lokhandwala, produced by his company White Feather Films and Balaji Telefilms in which, ironically, Dutt played a cop fighting terrorists, also collected Rs 14.7 crore in six weeks, according to industry figures. Clearly, Dutt has remained an eminently bankable star, and hence, the film industry is worried.
On his day of reckoning, the actor, dressed in a white shirt, unlike his favourite blue, was in tears when the sentence was delivered. ?Very harsh,? said the film fraternity. Dutt?s buddy and co-star of the Munnabhai films, Arshad Warsi, was vociferous: ?He is not a criminal.?
Sanjay Gupta, Dutt?s partner in his production company, is irritated with all the media hype. ?Why can?t you leave Sanju alone? We need to make sure he is all right now.?