01 September,2009 07:03 AM IST | | Subhash K Jha
Sanjay Dutt ventures into realistic cinema with a project that's a gritty, edgy, no-holds-barred look at the life of a drug addict turned anti-drug messiah. He green-lighted the project in exactly two minutes.
I'm on!
When choreographer-producer-writer Ahmed Khan met Dutt with a film on drug abuse and its eradication, the star-actor said yes immediately.
The film has deep autobiographical shades (Dutt was addicted to drugs, and now after kicking off the habit wants to kick off drug dealers from the face of the planet!) will be directed by Faruq Kabir, whose ready-for-release directorial debut Allah Ke Bande has won rave advance notices.
Striking a chord
The anti-drug story will be produced by Ahmed's wife Shaira. He says, "It's related to Sanjay Dutt's life and is very close to his heart. He has been doing a lot of anti-drugs campaigns. The minute he heard the story, he said he was on. The protagonist's plunge into a haze of drugs and then his redemption stuck an immediate chord in Sanjay Dutt's heart."
The third segment of the plot will have Sanjay Dutt taking onu00a0 drug cartels from the world over. "It's a film where in a fictional language, Sanjay Dutt will tell the youth how dangerous drug abuse is and how drugs need to be destroyed."
Performance-backed
Ahmed wants to cast Naseeruddin Shah and Irrfan Khan as drug barons. "It will be a performance-oriented film and so close to Sanjay Dutt's heart that he will want every youngster in the country to see it."
