A journalist named Baljeet Parmar broke the story of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt possessing AK-56 on 14th April, 1993. He was working for a tabloid and just after five days of it, the actor was taken into custody when he came back to India from Mauritius where he was shooting for a film.
After arrest, Dutt was charged under the TADA act and subsequent to a legal fight for years, he was given clean chit by a TADA court which said that he kept the gun for the purpose of self-defence only; nevertheless, he was jailed for five years under the Arms Act.
We all know that the filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani has made a biopic on the life story of Sanjay Dutt in which the titular role has been played by Ranbir Kapoor. Well, the flick is acclaimed by viewers and critics alike and has been performing well on the box-office from the opening day itself.
The reporter who broke the news of Sanjay possessing the gun has been asked many times to watch “Sanju”. Just to inform, for more than 40 years, this journo has covered Mumbai underworld. However, he is not at all interested in watching “Sanju” or rather we should say that he has trashed it even before watching and he has revealed the reason of the same too in a Facebook post.
In his words,
“The use or misuse of drugs, sleeping with women, branding media as an addictive potion, finding faults with system or society, willingly and knowingly Indulge in criminal activity, showing no remorse for your past actions, playing the sympathy card and crying victim, if that is what SANJU is about, I do not regret my decision of staying away from cinema halls.”
He went on to say that filmmakers like Hirani are in the market “to make a quick buck” by playing sympathy card.
Check out his Facebook post:
“During the last two days I have received hundreds of messages and requests to react on the film SANJU. First of all let me confess that I am not a film buff. The last time I went to watch a movie was in 1997.
But that doesn’t mean that I am alien to the medium. My first brush with Bollywood was in 1976 when I landed in Mumbai from Chandigarh. My friend Labh Singh was working for Himalaya Films and I stayed with him at Shri Chetan Anand’s shack at Juhu where I had the privilege of, meeting Dev Saab, Goldie ji, Raj Kumar, Vinod Khanna, Pran Saab, Shekhar Kapoor among many others.
During the period Chetan Saab started ‘hathon ki Lakrrein ‘and his son Kunki Baba completed his film with Shekhar and Shsbana. I was a part of the production team. It was here at Himalaya Films that I got my big career break courtesy Kunki Baba and vital help from his general manager Poras Dartuwalla who introduced me to Sam Cambata and Kali Mody who had the security contract for hotels Holiday Inn, Juhu, Ambassador at Churchgate and Wellington Club. I was made the Chief Security Officer and operated from Juhu.
In those days Holiday Inn was nerve centre of Bollywood activities. Every other day there was a Mahurat or a filmi party.
My job and position put me in direct contact with many known personalities. Dharam Bhaji gave us contract to guard his bungalow which made made me to visit him often. The extended Deol family –Bauji, Ajit Bhaaji, Virender,, Jagdarshan, Ranjit Virk became my family too and still remains the same.
I still cherish the moments like having a drink with Rajesh Khanna, Pran Saab, Rajinder Singh Bedi,Raj Kumar, Achha Anand or enjoying card sessions at Narinder Bedi’s Khar Bungalow.
The point I want to make is that I have seen film industry from very close quarters.But at the same time I never felt at home in the filmdom. I still have many friends and well wishers like Raj Babbar, Milan Luthria, Madhur Bhandarkar, Satish Kaushik to name a few but I never discuss films with them. We just exchange pleasantries or chat about the underworld.
Having said that I very strongly feel that it is a waste of time to discuss merits or dismerits of films like SANJU or it’s protagonist Sanjay Dutt. Hirani and his ilk are out there to make a quick buck. That is their business and they have every right to do it. They are there to compose fiction and not portraying facts. Fiction is soft. Facts are hard. One is very easy to manufacture the other is difficult to gather.
The so-called biopics are tailored to suit the man or the woman they are based on. They are not to inspire the audiences but are there to create a smokescreen to blur their minds.
The use or misuse of drugs, sleeping with women, branding media as an addictive potion, finding faults with system or society, willingly and knowingly Indulge in criminal activity, showing no remorse for your past actions, playing the sympathy card and crying victim, if that is what SANJU is about, I do not regret my decision of staying away from cinema halls.”
Earlier in the year 2007, the reporter disclosed how he got to know about Sanjay possessing illegal weapons.
It so happened that he visited Mahim police station on April 12, 1993, where an IPS officer tipped him by saying, “Aapke MP ke bete ka naam aa raha hai (Your MP’s son’s name is coming in the investigation)”.
He told PTI,
“It did not take me long to figure out that the MP being referred to was Sunil Dutt. However, I could not confirm it since all the senior officers, including the then commissioner of police Amarjeet Singh Samra, were tight-lipped.”
He made up mind to play bluff. As per him,
“I called an IPS officer at Mahim and said: ‘Suna hai aapne kisi MP ke bete ko uthaya hai (I have heard that you have picked up an MP’s son)’. The answer slipped out. ‘No, we have not, as he is shooting abroad,’ he replied. There it was – my big story. It had to be Sanjay Dutt.”
What do you have to say in this regard? Let us know your views.