Jail was a sad but beneficial experience: Sanjay Dutt

Now that he is out on bail how does Sanjay Dutt look back on the time he spent in prison and during the last six months what’s been the impact on his life and his outlook. Those are the issues Karan Thapar discusses with the actor on Devil’s Advocate.

Karan Thapar: Sanjay you have just been released on bail after a month in prison what is it feel like to be free?

Sanjay Dutt: Freedom is something which everybody takes for granted, it’s sad but it’s human nature to take freedom for granted but I think freedom is something which you can’t buy, as much of money you have, but its great to be free.

Karan Thapar:And when you lose it you value it even more.

Sanjay Dutt: You value it even more, absolutely.

Karan Thapar:You must have thought a lot about that moment when you would walk out of the jail. What was the first thing you did?

Sanjay Dutt: When I walked out, first thing I did was I thanked God. I looked around and that is freedom basically. It was great.

Karan Thapar: Even little things like trees and birds chirruping in the trees represented freedom and liberty.

Sanjay Dutt: Absolutely yes.

Karan Thapar:After a month in prison how easy is it to adjust to a normal life?

Sanjay Dutt: It depends on person. I think one should leave the past and move on and carry on with your daily activities, carry on with your work. I think past should be left behind and a person should move on.

Karan Thapar: So in a sense you said to yourself when you walked out of jail ‘I am going to forget what’s happened, I am going to consciously put it behind me and look forward.’

Sanjay Dutt: Absolutely, I just had to do that. Just put it behind and I had to start getting back to my work, the social work and whatever I do. I just had to get back to it.

Karan Thapar: Today, for the sake of your millions of fans I am going to ask you to just go back a little and tell us what was it like being in jail?

Sanjay Dutt: Jail is basically a reformatory centre. The criminals who go into jail come out reformed and its not a good place to be in. But if you look at the positive side there is the only connection with the God, which is direct. You are not in the daily rigmarole, you are just focused and its absolute great connection with the God.

Karan Thapar: So you spend a lot of time in jail thinking about God.

Sanjay Dutt: Absolutely, I do pray everyday but the kind of hours I used to sit in front of the mandir and praying was something amazing.

Karan Thapar: This is the mandir in jail?

Sanjay Dutt: Mandir in my room, which I made myself.

Karan Thapar: Tell me about your routine to begin with what time did the day start?

Sanjay Dutt: Day starts about 5 am or 5:30 am and there is the basic breakfast and tea and then I used to make chairs. I used to start making chairs at about 9 am and we used to have a break in the afternoon and then carry on in the

Karan Thapar: A lot of people must be curious, who would want to know what jail is like. Are you happy to share your experience or do you in a sense want to put a veil around it and keep it to yourself and wish that they talked about other things instead.

Sanjay Dutt: I think it is better to talk about other things but I really don’t mind talking about jail. It doesn’t disturb me — I wish I could change the system in jail but I cannot do anything about that. I think if they think about it and try to change the system inside people would be much better.

Karan Thapar: After these spells in jail do you think you can be a star like any other star in Mumbai, revelling in the stardom. Or Sanjay Dutt will always be famous, but different?

Sanjay Dutt: Well I have always been different. I have always tried to keep a low profile but I don’t know somehow or the other it goes crazy. But I would like to be the way I am.

Karan Thapar: You don’t want to change?

Sanjay Dutt: No, I don’t want to change.

Karan Thapar: So in a sense, though you have been through a terrible time you found something about yourself in jail: a determination to work, a comfort and reassurance in God and a realisation that there are always people with worse problems.

Sanjay Dutt: Yes, there are people. If you look out of the window and just see you will realise that there are a lot of problems people have which are larger than mine.

Karan Thapar: So your verdict is: I hated jail and I don’t want to go back but I am happy I had the experience because it taught me something about myself.

Sanjay Dutt: I can’t be happy about jail — I really don’t want to go back there but as I said you have to look at it in a positive way instead of thinking why I was there or this and that. You have to change things around in jail and just say I have learnt from this experience.

Karan Thapar: Everything is a learning experience.

Sanjay Dutt: Yes.

Karan Thapar: Sanjay Dutt, a pleasure talking to you and stay safe.

Sanjay Dutt: Thank you.

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