Why did you ask for six months, Sanjay Dutt?

Sanjay Dutt can afford to let out a huge sigh of relief knowing that he wonrsquot have to breathe in the stale confined air of a prison cell for at least another month The Supreme Court granted the superstar a fourweek reprieve yesterday driving a hard bargain with Dutt who had sought six months of extended freedom citing pressing work commitments that he needed to honouru00a0 Sanjay Dutt needs three days to finish shooting for Policegiri PicNimish Dave While the basis of Duttrsquos plea for a reprieve was the fact that he had films worth a collective Rs 278 crore riding on him MiD DAY did its own calculations to determine just how pressing and timeconsuming these lsquowork commitmentsrsquo are Four films featuring Dutt are on the floors at present PeeKay with Aamir Khan under the direction of Rajkumar Hirani Zanjeer 2 with Apoorva Lakhia Policegiri with KS Ravikumar and Ungli a Rensil DrsquoSilva film A fifth production Sher with director Soham Shah has died a slow death In the Zanjeer remake Dutt reprises the iconic role of Sher Khan that was played by legendary lsquobad manrsquo Pran in the original A sea of media personnel gathered outside Sanjay Duttrsquos Pali Hill residence Imperial Heights in Bandra after the Supreme Court granted the Bollywood actor four more weeks to surrender before he returns to prison to serve the rest of the jail term for illegal possession of arms Dutt had appealed in the Court asking for more time to wrap up his ongoing assignments PicsSameer Markande A source close to the filmrsquos director Apoorva Lakhia told MiD DAY ldquoWe will require a minimum of five to six days with Sanju Three days will be required to shoot his scenes with actors including Priyanka Chopra while the rest of the time will be required to finish dubbing for the film We shot with him for three days last weekrdquo PeeKay director Hirani laid claim on a greater share of the actorrsquos time saying ldquoSanju still has eight days of shoot left for PeeKay to be completedrdquo About a fortnight of hard work will thus allow Dutt to tick Zanjeer 2 and PeeKay off his checklist leaving him with Ungli and Policegiri Producer Rahul Agrawal who is the coproducer of Duttrsquos upcoming film Policegiri is the son of producer T P Agarwal The actor has at least four films in the pipeline including Peekay Policegiri Ungli and a remake of the 1973 hit Zanjeer When the verdict was announced against Dutt last month Ungli director Rensil DrsquoSilva had said ldquoI have completed the portions for my film which feature Sanju Since I had shot the film in sync sound I wonrsquot be needing him for dubbing but my heart goes out to him and his familyrdquo But now that Dutt has a month of extended freedom the makers have decided to shoot a sequence that they had earlier thought was inessential Film Director Apurva Lakhiya was seen visiting the Dutt residence in Bandra yesterday Dutt who stars in Lakhiarsquos remake of 1973 hit Zanjeer plays the role of Sher Khan Four days of Duttrsquos services will be required for this sequence a couple of days for the shoot and another couple to dub for the same Policegiri which rides solely on Duttrsquos star power has a maximum of three daysrsquo work left Some patchwork remains for a song shoot which will account for a couple of days while some dubbing remains to be completed Close friend Yusuf Nalwala who served his jail term with Sanjay Dutt as he was involved in the destruction of the weapon in the actorrsquos possession was also seen at Sanjay Duttrsquos Bandra residence yesterday All told Dutt needs a maximum of 21 days of work a mere three weeks to be able to go to jail with a clear conscience This begs questions about the lsquoworkrsquo that the superstar was planning to do in the five extra months he would have in hand had the court granted his plea for a sixmonth reprieve Duttrsquos lawyer Satish Maneshinde refused to comment on the matter Dutt did not receive our phone calls Trade talk A trade analyst told MiD DAY requesting anonymity ldquoSanjay Dutt is part of expensive films but only one is totally dependent on him Policegiri is the only film riding on his shoulders in which he plays a hero He plays second lead in both Zanjeer and PeeKay to Ram Charan Teja and Aamir Khan respectively The makers of Zanjeer are counting on the filmrsquos release in Telugu to recover most of the money as the hero of the film Ram Charan Teja is a huge star down south Sanju isnrsquot even part of the Telugu version Ungli is more of a DharmaKaran Johar productionrdquo Pending work 8 Daysu00a0PeeKay Rajkumar Hirani 5 Daysu00a0Zanjeer 2 Apoorva Lakhia 3 Daysu00a0Policegiri KS Ravikumar 4 Daysu00a0Ungli Rensil DrsquoSilva