Sanju and Sallu cases most discussed in Bollywood

Leading Bollywood actors Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan, both from leading families of the film industry, are the two most-discussed stars when it comes to crime.

While Sanjay, known popularly as Sanju baba in the industry, is currently facing a five-year jail term in the March 12, 1993 serial blasts case for illegal possession of a AK-47 assault rifle, Salman (also called Sallu bhai) has been given a five-year jail term in a 13-year-old drunken-driving and hit-and-run case.

Though the cases were different – there were some commonalities between Sanju and Sallu – as their disturbed private life had been on public domain – and both are loved by the film industry with a big fan following.

Sanju, 55, is the son of late actor-politician-minister Sunil Dutt and Nargis, while Sallu, 49, is son of respected scriptwriter Salim Khan and Salma Khan. 

Sanju is currently serving a prison term at the Yerawada jail in Pune. As far as Sallu, who is popularly called Bhai, is facing a jail term – and also a possible sentence in the blackbuck poaching case in Rajasthan.

“Sanjay and Salman are close to each other. In fact, it is Sanjay Dutt who introduced Salman Khan to fitness regime and gyms,” a film industry source said, adding that friendship and love between Sanju and Sallu bonded further when they acted in films like “Sajaan” and “Chal Mere Bhai”.  “The two families have mutual respect for each other,” sources said.

Besides, another actor Shiney Ahuja – had been sentenced to a seven-year-jail term, in connection with the rape of a domestic maid, but he does not hail from a Bollywood family.

“There are several cases against Bollywood personalities in the past, but that was limited to tax evasion. The nineties saw the cases involving Dutt and nearly a decade later it was Salman’s cases. In between we had the cause of Bollywood-underworld nexus…but these kind of cases had figured in the last two decades and not the era before,” veteran film analyst Sumant Mishra, told Deccan Herald.