Sanjay Dutt- the king of catastrophic setbacks  

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.