MUMBAI: After Sanjay Dutt, it’s Salman Khan who will now bear the brunt of his doings. The actor, who was charged for poaching a chinkara (a black buck species) on the outskirts of Jodhpur near Mathania on 27 September, 1998, while shooting for his film Hum Saath Saath Hain, will have to serve a five year sentence as his bail plea got rejected this morning in the Jodhpur court.
The courtroom was packed when the judge pronounced the sentence but the actor missed the crucial moment as his flight was delayed from Hyderabad to Jodhpur. In normal circumstances, the convict has to surrender as soon as the sentence is given, but Khan will surrender on Monday (27 August). Also, he will appeal to a higher court after the weekend.
A host of celebrities were seen at Khan’s Bandra residence. Subhash Ghai, Neeta Lulla, Govinda and David Dhawan are a few names among the Bollywood biggies.
The actor has signed a number of films, a few of which have been announced, while the others will hit the floors soon. One of his films is London Dreams, opposite Priyanka Chopra. However, there is no clarity on who will be directing it.
On being contacted, director Vipul Shah says, “Salman wants me to direct London Dreams and that is extremely sweet of him. The day Rajkumar Santoshi tells me to take over; I will sign the film without reading the script. So we don’t know if we are in trouble right now.â€
About the verdict Shah says, “I am not from the judiciary to comment on this. But emotionally I feel it’s a very harsh statement. No one has been given such a severe sentence in the Chinkara case. I think he is just paying a price for his celebrity status and his so called bad boy image in the industry.â€
Khan’s other films in the pipeline are Boney Kapoor’s Pokhri, Rumi Jaffery’s God Tussi Great Ho and Tom and Jerry and Mr. and Mrs Khanna, which is a two film deal with his brother Sohail Khan’s company and AIM listed The Indian Film Company.
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