This was something many people had had anticipated but it still made them angry when the announcement finally happened. Sanjay Dutt who is serving a five year prison sentence for an illegal arms possession case that dates back over two decades is going to be released 18 months before his sentence gets over. 
The state government which permitted this is saying that Dutt is being given remission for good behaviour while in prison. What shocks many is that in the time that he is said to have already served, Dutt has been out on parole for various reasons and that adds up to almost three months. For reasons which are all too apparent, the prison authorities and the government always seem to be very benevolent when it comes to Dutt’s imprisonment. 
He is said to have reported back late on one occasion when he had been granted furlough to go home but that has not gone against him. Meanwhile tens of thousands of other prisoners continue to languish in jail without any such concessions. 
Dutt’s lawyers say that these are legal options open to everyone and his parole and remission are all rights that prisoners are entitled to. And that if other prisoners did not avail of them, the solution is to make every prisoner aware of his rights. 
Bollywood, of course, has welcomed the reduction of Dutt’s prison term with many filmmakers expressing their happiness over it. There is also a public interest litigation filed in court saying that this sentence reduction should not be allowed to happen. 
The chances of the court stepping in to overrule the government are not very high if it meets the provisions of the law. It will be interesting to see what Dutt will do about his career once he returns. 
He is 56 years old and his days might be very well over as a standalone hero. In any case, he was being increasingly seen in character roles before he went to prison. He could, of course, also turn producer as so many stars are doing. And then there might be the option of getting into public life, since his late father Sunil Dutt was a successful politician and so is his sister.

Censor issue
The latest filmmaker to raise a banner of revolt against the Censor Board is Prakash Jha. His movie Jai Gangaajal, starring Priyanka Chopra, is set to be released and, as is the norm, has to get the Censor Board’s certification. 
To his annoyance and bafflement, Jha was asked to make rather bizarre changes. He says that when he submitted the movie he was told that there were too many abusive words in it and he would need to bleep them out if the movie was not be given an ‘A’ certificate which makes only adults eligible to watch the movie. Jha says that if he had agreed to those demands then there would be bleeps in more 50 places in the movie. 
Jha’s experience comes in the wake of the James Bond movie Spectre having a kissing scene’s length shortened. The man at the centre of all these controversies and who gets the most flak for it is the Censor Board chairman Pahlaj Nihalani, a filmmaker who has himself in the past made some movies which had language loaded with sexual allusions. 
He however seems to be in some discomfort now with the government ordering a panel to look into reforming the Censor Board. Shyam Benegal, who is a much-respected member of the film fraternity, heads it and the initiative has found wide support.

Brand recall
Aamir Khan is finding out that speaking on issues connected to politics can have repercussions. For a long time, he was the face of Indian tourism as its brand ambassador and regularly seen in advertisements related to it. 
Suddenly, out of the blue, he and the rest of India has come to know that he will no longer hold that position. The reason is said to be a retaliation by the government for his recent statement at an event that there was an atmosphere of intolerance in the country. 
Aamir had said that his wife had even asked him whether they should move out of the country and it led to becoming a huge controversy. The tourism minister, on his part, defended the change saying that Aamir had not been dropped as the brand ambassador; the contract had merely come to an end and they decided not to renew it. 
Aamir gamely put out a statement that said that he had been honoured to be Indian tourism’s face for 10 years and had not charged anything for it. He added that he had no problems with the change and wrote, ‘Whether I am brand ambassador or not, India will remain Incredible, and that’s the way it should be.’

Not a villain
Amitabh Bachchan is once again back on the big screen with Wazir, which released last week. He plays one of the main characters in the thriller that also stars Farhan Akhtar. 
Last year was a good one for Amitabh with an unexpected blockbuster in Piku. Wazir is a movie in a different mould but if it becomes a hit then it will reaffirm Amitabh’s never-ending success. During an interview recently he revealed a rather interesting anecdote that highlights the twists and turns that his career makes. 
When Robot, the Tamil movie starring Rajnikanth that went on to become a superhit in 2010, was being planned, its director Shankar had in fact asked Amitabh to play the villain in it. Amitabh says that he phoned Rajnikanth, who is also a good friend, for advice on whether he should take up the movie. 
Interestingly, Rajnikanth told him not to do it because the audience would not accept Amitabh in a villain’s role. Amitabh followed that advice and was not seen in Robot. 
And there is some truth to the idea that his fans don’t like him as a villain. One of his worst movies was the Sholay remake by Ram Gopal Varma in which he played the character of the iconic villain Gabbar Singh. 

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