Sanjay Dutt enters the big league, charges Rs 7-8 crore

Sanjay Dutt off lately hasconstantly hogged the media limelight for all the wrong reasons from court casesto marital issues. But finally the actor seems to be in news for positivereasons including his film signing spree. His upcoming films include EMI, Aladinand Kidnap. Also he is all set to tickle your funny bone with his spate ofcomedy films including one with Amisha Patel called Chatur Singh Two Stars,another to be directed by Ashwini Dheer and the third installment in Munnabhaiseries. But on the way Sanju baba has also realized that managing finances is nofunny business and how.

Around a year back Sanjay Dutt used to chargeanywhere between Rs 90 lakh and Rs 2 crore for his films. But with theback-to-back success of Shootout at Lokhandwala and Dhamaal, his star value onlygot better. This was a time when he was in a position to hike his fees.Unfortunately for him this was the very phase when he was embroiled in all thelegal hassles and also sentenced for a six-year imprisonment. This verdict bythe court was a big blow to all his producers who were hugely banking on him fortheir films.

With his repeatedattempts at getting bail and the multiple trails that he had to face, producersstarted losing hope on Sanjay Dutt and were skeptical to sign or consider himfor their films. It was natural of them, as any financer wouldn���t want hisproject to be stuck up due to uncertainty of Sanjay Dutt���s availability.When everything should have been going right post his box-office success, Sanjuon the contrary, was going through a very lean phase in his career.

To add to his problems was his fallout with long time good friendand colleague Sanjay Gupta. With the fallout he even separated himself from hisproduction banner White Feather Films, jointly handled by Sanjay Gupta. Sourcessay that he trusted Gupta blindly and had only 30-40% shares in the company.With his departure from White Feathers, he only had to suffer more monetarylosses. It was constantly reported in the media at that point of time that Sanjuwas in desperate need for money.
Everyactor has a camp and so did Sanjay Dutt. But unfortunately his camp wasn���tof much help to him either. Says an industry insider, ���Over the yearsSanju has worked with his own set of producers and directors like MaheshManjrekar, Nitin Manmohan, Sanjay Gupta and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Now if younotice, Manjrekar is not directing any film as he is not considered a hot-shotdirector anymore, Nitin has stopped producing films, with Sanjay Gupta he hasparted ways and Vidhu hasn���t yet started his film���.

However in his testingtimes, Sanju had some good friends like Suniel Shetty and Asthavinayak bannerwho were always by his side in his testing times. They showed faith in himdespite his testing times and were optimistic that Dutt will come out on bail.And as luck would have it, Sanju did get bail. Post that he was entangled incontroversies related to his marriage with his girlfriend of 2 years, Manyata.However Sanju emerged out unscathed from all these controversies.

Ifone goes to see, despite all the controversies, Sanju never got a negativeimage. Throughout the court cases he had the image of this victimized star andgot sympathy from the media. He always enjoyed a rich fan-following. A tradeexpert says, ���I don���t think his star status is affected much. Sanjuhas his own brand of fan following. In fact even last time when he was booked,he bounced back with a bang and rouse like a Phoenix. He is controversy���sfavourite son and has emerged victorious every time, be it drugs, TADA,marriages, etc, etc���

This was also the time when theCorporates were getting into Bollywood business and star remunerations werereaching sky-high. Sanjay Dutt who was not much business-conscious earlier, tookthings more seriously and taking advantage of the situation hiked his fees by afew crores. It is believed in trade circles today that the actor chargesanything between Rs 7 to 8 crore as his fees. Perhaps Sanju has learnt hismarket value. Says the trade person, ���With his counterparts playing incrores, thanks to corporate invasion, Sanju too hiked his fees. Moreover thereis definite dearth of stars who command box-office initials���.

Of course the fee might change depending on his relationship withthe producers. For example in the case of Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Dutt might chargeless considering the filmmaker gave him a career-defining role with theMunnabhai series which helped him get back in the big league some years back.But then there are others who are willing to pay. Sanju���s close friend andproducer-actor Suniel Shetty says, ���I am not among the producer, actor orfriend who would exploit Sanju for money. Whoever gives whatever to Sanjay Dutt,I will always give him a rupee more, because I believe he is worthit.���

Today Sanjay Dutt has a 3-film deal with Asthavinayak,with the first film Kidnap almost ready and the second to be directed by SohamShah to go on floors soon. After separating himself from White Feather Films,Sanju not only plans to revive his father Sunil Dutt���s banner Ajanta Arts,but is also preparing to soon set up his own production house to be named asSanjay Dutt Productions Pvt Ltd. Fate of his forthcoming couple of films willdetermine Sanjay Dutt���s box-office standing and who knows he might soonhike his fees by a few more crores...

Courtesy: Indiatimes Movies