Before he was sentenced to five years in prison, Sanjay Dutt used to command crores in fees for starring in films that went on to become blockbusters. In prison, however, he used to keep Rs 20 aside from the Rs 2,000 he used to get every month for personal expenses.”For emergencies,” he told this newspaper after his release. “I learnt the true value of money in jail.”
The prison term changed Dutt in many ways. “I am now a bonafide shayar,” he said, adding that two inmates, Sameer and Zeeshan, inspired him. “They were shayars (poets) and I liked their work. With them, I also started writing shayaris (couplets). I have written 500 shayaris in jail which I will get published in a book,” he said. Dutt said that apart from Sameer and Zeeshan, he made good friends with Sajar and Gotia Mama.
On his newly acquired hairstyle, Dutt said that a convict, Mishra ji, from Dharavi who was lodged in the Yerwada Central Prison was given the task of a barber and he had insisted on him giving Dutt a haircut once.”He had told me that he will give me the best hairstyle and I am indeed impressed,” Dutt said.
Allotted prisoner number 16656, Dutt had had turned insomniac and hardly ate in the four days preceding his release.
“I have got my freedom today after 23 years; I am happy to be back with my family and friends,” Dutt told Mirror. “I would have been really happy had my father been alive to see this day. All his life, he wanted to see his son free; he would have been the happiest person to see my freedom,” Dutt said, tears rolling down his cheek. Dutt, imprisoned in an arms case related to the 1993 Mumbai blasts, was released from Pune’s Yerwada Jail this morning.
Dutt, who walked out of jail at 8.35 am, first did a shot for Rajkumar Hirani for a biopic that the director is making on Dutt. The actor kissed the ground, saluted the prison and the tricolor and then slung a heavy bag on his shoulder. These images will be the opening shot of Hirani’s biopic.
At the Pune airport, Dutt told waiting media personnel, “There is no easy walk to freedom, my friends.”
He arrived in Mumbai along with his family members in a chartered plane and went straight to the famed Siddhivinayak temple. From there, he went to pray at his mother’s grave first and later folded his hands in front of his father’s portrait at his residence. Manyata, his third wife, their twin children Iqra and Shahran, sister and ex-MP Priya Dutt and close friends were by his side. While interacting with the media at his apartment at Imperial Heights in Bandra, an emotional Dutt requested the media not to tag him as a terrorist. “I’m proud to be an Indian,” he said.
“As a good husband, I have handed over Rs 440 which I had earned making paper bags in prison to my better half. Manyata is my strength,” he said. When asked about Salman Khan, Dutt said Salman was like his younger brother and will remain one forever.
“I have got my freedom today after 23 years; I am happy to be back with my family and friends,” Dutt told Mirror. “I would have been really happy had my father been alive to see this day. All his life, he wanted to see his son free; he would have been the happiest person to see my freedom,” Dutt said, tears rolling down his cheek. Dutt, imprisoned in an arms case related to the 1993 Mumbai blasts, was released
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