Sanjay Dutt's producer's worried

MUMBAI: While Sanjay Dutt's friends have cheered the Samajwadi Party's decision to field him as its Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow, the actor's producers are certainly not amused. With a whopping Rs 260 crore riding on the actor, the producers' lobby is worried sick about movies taking a backseat as Dutt will be busy canvassing.
Ever since news about the actor's candidacy broke out, his manager Dharam Oberoi has been flooded with calls from producers seeking reconfirmation of their shooting schedules over the next couple of months.Some film corporations have also held closed door meetings to discuss if they should postpone their films with Dutt till later this year.
Under production films starring Dutt are Anthony D'Souza's Blue, Ajay Chandok's Chatur Singh Two Star, Soham Shah's Luck and Rahul Dholakia's Lamha, which is currently being shot in Srinagar. Rohit Shetty also has planned a film with Dutt, Ajay Devgan and Fardeen Khan.
A trade source says, "Film corporations producing movies with Dutt are in a state of panic. They know he will now have to divide his time between politics and acting.''
"If elections are held as scheduled in May 2009, then some of these six films will be badly affected,'' says another trade source.
However, if elections are advanced to April, then Dutt's shooting schedules from February 2009 are likely to go haywire and a few crores will go down the drain.
Despite the uncertainty, the producers are putting up a brave front. Says Shetty, who plans to start filming in March 2009 in Goa, "Kumar Mangat is looking after our production and he has spoken to Sanjay's manager. Oberoi has assured him that Sanjay will join our schedule on March 7 in Goa and shoot with us non-stop for a month. So, we are safe.''
Dhilin Mehta, managing director of Ashtavinayak Cine Vision that is producing Blue, says, "90% of our film is complete. We will release it in 2009.''
Director of Blue, D'Souza, adds, "Sanjay is a professional guy. He has never troubled me. He will complete his portion from February 20 to March 5 for sure. Only the dubbing will remain.''
Oberoi admitted that Dutt's shooting schedules may be altered if the actor contests the polls. "He will have to canvass for at least two months prior to the election. However, since the election dates have not been announced, there is no cause for any panic.''
Sanjay has a tough battle ahead
Bharati Dubey I tnn
With the Samajwadi Party (SP) adamant on fielding Sanjay Dutt as their Lucknow candidate to contest the Lok Sabha elections, the actor will need more than his star-power to win this battle. He will be pitted against a candidate handpicked by Atal Behari Vajpayee. The former Indian prime minister has been elected eight times in row from the same constituency. Besides, the BJP has a strong presence in Lucknow.
But this is not the first time the SP has fielded a star candidate. In 1996, actor Raj Babbar contested the polls on a SP ticket. Babbar lost to Vajpayee by a margin of 1.18 lakh votes. During the 1998 election, the SP fielded film-maker Muzaffar Ali. He polled 215,475 votes against Vajpayee's 431,738.
UP BJP President Kalraj Mishra said, "The SP is fielding Sanjay Dutt only for the sake of publicity.''
Congress spokesperson Rajiv Shukla said he did not foresee any possibility of Dutt being given a Lok Sabha ticket.