A lifetime of self-destruction becomes almost second nature to some. Happenstance makes you commit a folly but compels you to learn from it. You’re cruising at a smooth-slick speed. There’s no sign that reads Danger. So, you fail, heading into the roadblock-devil crash. You’re granted pardon. But you’re expected to get up, dust yourself and avoid falling into the next one. But life sometimes doesn’t take turns you expect it to, doesn’t stop at all speed-breakers.

Sunjay Dutt can probably write a book about this theory. It’s probably one of the most eventful lives that a Hindi film star has been known to lead. Sunju’s story is peppered generously with sparkling examples of his living-on-the-edge leaning. A biographer would never fall short of incidents to chronicle the deadly Dutt’s dangerous obsession towards his life in his own hands, crumbling it into a paper ball and throwing it along with caution, to the willful winds. While people who love this man (still referred to, with Freudian meaning perhaps, as Sunju Baba) look on helplessly, us, K-Stardust included.

It distresses people who care for the lovable Sanjay to see him going on a path of damnation all over again, just when life seems to be going well. But facts, when they stare at you in the face, are hard. And when we heard of Sanjay beating up a veteran journalist in London, that too just after he got permission to go abroad for a show, we could do nothing but shake our heads and wonder why so much effort was repeated several times, as the attached journalist told us his side of the sad story.

Time and again, Sanjay has gotten into scraps. And somehow or the other, got out of them. Luck has favored this man, more than most others. People have always found it easy to forgive this muscleman with the most vulnerable face and the Suez, whatever his escapade. Somebody holding a grudge against Sanjay seemed like holding a grudge against childhood itself. Never mind the fact that this child who had today, at the wrong side of thirty (and the right side of forty), was old enough to fend for himself.

Even gentle, lanky, droopy-eyed Sanjay has got in fist fights, has hardly been able to keep out of the limelight. He has been labelled a ‘drug addict’, ‘womanizer’ and even ‘terrorist’. No other label Hollywood knows the meaning of the word ‘pain’ better than Sanjay Dutt. His mother’s death and his father’s career left a void in his life that has never been filled. His ex-wife being diagnosed as suffering from the same disease which his mother died of—made any man lose faith in love and life.

And yet, against all odds, Sanjay fought the vicissitudes of life and reached the peak of his career. But before he could taste the fruits of his success, he was imprisoned for breaking the law.

The mistakes have been many. Hence, one would think he must learn from them. Not so, in Sanjay’s case. “I tried to change my life once. It didn’t work so I gave up,” says Sanjay Dutt in the American talk show Arsenio Hall. The Family. Sanjay probably did the same. People close to him, like his father and his lovely wife Rhea Pillai, have stood by him through thick and thin. Believing in him. But in a single moment of madness, Sanjay seems to have lost them all. Like the leopard, which never changes its spots. Rotten seems to have been his story.

After some 18 months in a cell, where his only friends were some birds, and where he was subjected to severe cries of fellow inmates, Sanjay Dutt returned to an industry that was unsure of him. Directors and producers were wary of signing Sanjay. With his initial film flopping, he was written off. He bore all this with stoic silence. Smiled at fair-weather friends who, in his absence, never spared a thought for him. He shrugged resigned wryness at professional acquaintances who carried on work, never looking at a buddy in despair. Sanjay was broken, but not bitter. And some three odd years later, a new Sanjay emerged. Marriage to Rhea Pillai provided him the much-longed-for stability in his life. He had finally sobered down. Or so it seemed.

Then, when ‘Vaastav’ stormed the box-office, his sad biography performance as an underworld don, his had been critically acclaimed. Luck has favoured this man again. He was again permitted to travel abroad. There were many who waited for him abroad.

But with success, he once more slipped. Bowled over by a drink, he lost control. At a London party, he was seen drinking heavily. The Q Club in Birmingham plays some of the best R&B and Garage music, and Sanjay and Sushmita danced away without a care in the world, till the wee hours of the morning.

Meanwhile, Shyam Bhatia, had checked into the same hotel. It was around 1.30 a.m. when Sanjay Dutt walked in with Sushmita. It was beginning to get a bit noisy. Shyam Bhatia would give him dirty looks. “She had absolutely no time for anyone,” he adds. “In fact, the way she was clinging to him and her indifference to the world around her, made me think of the French Revolution’s escapades, after the experience of his first (and he hopes last of its kind) stint with Bollywood stars.”

Meanwhile, Sanjay, who apparently was reeking of alcohol, had paused for a while to sign autographs for some of the hotel staff. With his son’s camera, Shyam tried to photograph the couple entering the lift. Sanjay moved into lightning action, grabbed the camera and smashed it hard into his (Shyam’s) mouth.

The next morning, when Shyam Bhatia contacted Farhat Hussain—the show’s promoter, Hussain chose to look the other way. “Sometimes you have fans behaving badly. Anyway, it’s not written on someone’s face that they are from the media,” he told Shyam. “He told Shyam that he did not know the lady, he had no connection with the media.”

With this rash action of Sanjay, a lot of dust was going to be raised. Because the assaulted scribe was no ordinary journalist. Shyam Bhatia is India’s senior abroad. Son of Prem Bhatia, Shyam has been a veteran journalist with the Observer in London for 20 years. In 1994, he wrote the International Journalist of the Year Award, besides the British Press award and a host of other felicitations. He has been the Middle East correspondent for The Observer and has covered the Iran-Iraq war, and the Afghan Soviet war where he was captured by Gul Badri Hikmatyar and spent 4 days with them before being released.

The Dream Team’s show has certainly turned out to be a nightmare for Shyam. He can’t believe what has happened to him. “I feel sorry for Sanjay. He did not have the decency to ring up and express his regrets or apologise,” was his statement yesterday.

As the news of the assault spread, it was Dutt who came under scrutiny. Some in Delhi, apparently attempting to lobby authorities to grant his son an extension of time to pay for the properties Sanjay has allegedly acquired, called the organisers of the show and requested them to limit the damage done. But with Rhea, who apparently flew to New York, where he was attending some other shows, having her luggage inspected at India Ahead and reportedly being questioned by the authorities, Sanjay was understandably shaken about the Sushmita aspect of the episode.

“Insiders say that Rhea was understandably shaken about the Sushmita aspect of the episode, and that, is a major link in Sushmita being out of Mahesh Manjrekar’s next film.”

And that, chrysmatic, is major link in Sushmita being out of Mahesh Manjrekar’s next film. Sushmita incidentally, is a close friend of the couple. Though she had been linked romantically with Sanjay, her co-stars maintain that this “Sush” was not a cross-and-cross affair. The real reason is Rhea, know-alls claim.

However, a certain amount of damage has been done to Sanjay. Personally, professionally too. The trust and faith that his family and friends have had on him has been all shook up. And in a single moment of madness, Sanjay Dutt has once again proved to be unpredictable.

Will he recover? He has done it before. But for a person who had everything, including stardom, money and respect, to lose it all once again would be tragic.

One thing is certain—Sanjay Dutt’s life will continue to be one hell of a roller-coaster ride.

Stardust International, November 2000