Sanjay takes up carpentry in jail

A press releases states that Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt has chosen carpentry as prison labor for which he will get paid about half-a-dollar a day, as he begins a six-year sentence for receiving guns from gangsters, officials said on Wednesday.

"As a normal procedure, he has been asked to choose some work and he chose carpentry," a jail official in the western city of Pune, where Dutt is lodged, said.

Dutt will be an apprentice in the jail's carpentry workshop. He can hope to earn about a dollar a day as he gets better at the job and his earnings will be paid to him in lump sum when he walks free. Officials said furniture, cane work, carpets and furnishings made by prisoners usually end up in government offices.

The actor, who has challenged his conviction in the Supreme Court and appealed for bail, chose carpentry over gardening, cooking, weaving, farming and metal-work, among other jobs.

It could take several days for Dutt's bail petition to be taken up by the court, legal experts say. Dutt is reported to be struggling with the harsh realities of prison life -- his cell has no fans and he shares a common toilet and bathroom. Newspapers have mentioned that Dutt felt uncomfortable in the coarse prison uniform -- a striped white shirt with white pajamas and a white cap.