A six-pack to get back?

There is the league of big stars and there is Sanjay Dutt, who has just come out of Yerwada jail on bail after serving 38 days of his sentence in the 1992 bomb blasts case.

Bollywood is concerned, will the close-to-50 and clearly unfit Sanjay stand a chance against the fit-at-40-and-below stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Khan, John Abraham and Saif Ali Khan who with their six-pack abs are dictating the new trends in market?

Admittedly, Sanjay has returned to the scene with five films on hand ( Mr. Fraud, Alibaug, Munnabhai Chale Amerika , Estimated Monthly Installment and Kidnap ), but the recent unfortunate series of events in his life have taken their toll on the once rugged macho man.

Bollywood believes the silver screen’s original hunk will have to struggle to reclaim his share of the industry pie. “We don’t need to remind him, Sanjay knows the importance of keeping fit. He is the original fitness freak who started the trend in Bollywood in the Eighties. He has inspired so many stars. He introduced me to gymming, it’s a different story that I don’t follow it religiously,” laughs showman Subhash Ghai, adding, “but Sanjay will do it for himself, not to belong to any league, he is in a league of his own.”

In the past, every Sanjay Dutt movie showed him indulging in action scenes, and the rebel star always worked hard on his body to keep up that image. At times, when he failed to maintain his inspirational workout regime, Sanjay always got by on the audiences’ support. He somehow managed to reclaim his lost glory with ease. “There is no doubt that the audience is nuts about him. He is lucky, but somewhere he has to conform to the market diktat , for stars need to be presentable. They are role models for the audience. And now Sanjay is doing action films. If he is playing a don, or a gangster or a bhai , which goes very well with his personality, he needs to keep fit. A don has a great persona,” explains industry watcher Indu Mirani.

Best friend and producer Bunty Walia, who’s doing three films (Lamha, Gangs of London and Just Punjabi) was with Munnabhai on Thursday night. He says that Sanju baba is already planning to hit the gym. “We are already gearing up for the gym. It’s his first love. He is a guy of tremendous will power. Having said this, Sanjay doesn’t have to do gain six-pack abs to be accepted back. He is the last of the lot who’s been the real inspiration of all the actors today. He not only has a great screen presence but his persona screams aloud ‘I am Sanjay Dutt’ when he is on screen. That’s his appeal,” explains Bunty.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh adds, “Today, when the market diktat drives you, everyone wants to look good. And a role model like Sanjay has to get back into shape for himself as well as for the people. In Bollywood, fit is in and fat is out. You can’t show a paunch. Audiences have become very demanding.”

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com