Sanjay Dutt is a reformed man. A rigorous jail term has made him a well-read, well-experienced person and a Shiv bhakt. At a conclave in New Delhi, Dutt shared with the attendees what jail did to him. “A jail term does not only take away your physical freedom, it imprisons your thought processes — you are no longer free to sit how you want, stand how you want...” Dutt revealed in broken sentences.
The actor went on to say how there is absolutely no concept of personal space in prison. He spoke of how during sleeping hours, brawls would break out among inmates for changing their sleeping positions. This was a broken but healing man who had seen life at its cruellest. But nothing embarrassed him — not even the references to toilet habits or the unpalatable food in jail. “The best place to lose weight is jail,” joked Dutt, adding that he had gone to prison with a potbelly but came out as fit as a fiddle. Not that he was provided with any exercise equipment. Dumb bells were forbidden since prison authorities felt he would use them to kill himself. Of course Dutt wasn’t cheekily recommending jail as a substitute to the gym. What he recommends for prisoners is reading the holy scriptures. He had read the Mahabharata, the Gita, the Ramayana and everything he could find on Lord Shiva. He came out of prison a Shiva bhakt and a diehard champion of prison reforms.
The actor feels strongly about the archaic laws going back to the British days that govern prison conduct. As an example of how demeaning some rules are, he says that every time a prison authority figure made his rounds, the prisoners had to squat on the floor like bonded labourers would do before zamindars. He seriously recommends drastic reforms in prison protocol; and he is working towards those. Dutt has shown a keen interest in working towards prison reforms with the government and there are also talks regarding a book on his prison experiences.
