Dutt to cut down on work

Dutt to cut down on work

The actor wants to spend time with his extended family

Subhash K Jha

It's not that Sanjay Dutt dislikes the media. He just hates to give interviews. "I've been very busy," he says. "My legal problems still persist. I've waited thirteen years but I don't know when the judgement will be out. Otherwise life has been good. Also, this is the best phase of my career. But I'm overworked."

Sanjay intends to reduce the workload considerably. "It's been long due," says Sanjay. "With dad gone, I've more responsibilities towards my family. I want to spend more time with them, take them out for a holiday, at least once a year. My daughter Trishala, sisters Anju and Priya, their kids and my brothers-in-law, I want to spend time with all of them."

In the past, Sanjay has had difficulty meeting his daughter. "I can't keep going to the US. But I try to have her join me on my shoots. I'm shooting in London from today and Trishala will soon be with me. I try to be with her as much as possible," says Sanjay.

Sanjay's next release is the eagerly awaited sequel to Munnabhai MBBS. "Munabbhai MBBS was definitely a turning point in my career," he says. "The sequel has turned out fabulously albeit it's slightly more complicated. Rajkumar Hirani brought in some Gandhian ideas. I like doing films like Munnabhai and Tathastu that offer me respite from my action-hero image. I want to play my age. I can't pretend to be someone I am not. I want to do films that matter. In my entire career I've been doing films to help friends out which isn't the best thing to help your career. My current assignments include Abbas-Mustan's comedy film in which I star with Bipasha Basu and Ajay Devgan. I like laughing and making people laugh."

As regards his production company White Feather (in partnership with Sanjay Gupta), "Gupta does all the administrative work," he says. "I can't look into day-to-day activities at White Feather as I'm travelling all the time. But I'm very excited about the films we're producing. We'll work with both new and established talent. We had given Sameera Reddy a central character in Musafir when she was a newcomer. We plan to launch a new male and female actor every year. We're making several films with directors and actors from diverse areas like Shyam Benegal and Sanjay Gupta." Wouldn't Dutt like to act in all his productions? "If Sanjay Gupta had his way, then maybe I'd have! He just can't imagine making films without me. I told him I can't be in all our films. At the same time, it's good to lend my name to my own products. So I'll try to be in as many White Feather productions as possible," he says.

• I like doing films that offer me respite from my action-hero image. I want to play my age. I can't pretend to be someone I am not