Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai
Episode : Sanjay Dutt
( April 5, 2002 - 9 pm on ZEE TV)
   

These shows are entertaining and unique tributes to India's best known, loved and admired celebrities, where the story of their life unfolds through family, friends, colleagues and others who have been close to the them. Each show is an entertaining, memorable and emotional "surprise party" which takes a look back at their lives like never before and celebrates not just the success of the celebrity, but also the joy of living itself. The shows include chats with the stars' nearest and dearest, clippings from rare home videos, rare moments from photo albums and nostalgic "re-visits" to locations where the stars have happily spent their time in early days. The series is anchored by acclaimed actor and genial host Farooque Sheikh.

 

Sanjay Dutt's first guests are his nearest and closest - his younger sister Priya and his father Sunil Dutt. Farooque is almost in a dilemma about who the episode should be on. Both father and son are legendary stars in their own right, only they belong to different generations. But it's Sanjay's day today! Farooque chats with Sunil Dutt about Sanjay's childhood and we see some rare baby snaps of Sanjay which have the guests and audience engrossed! "The audience has seen me in the nude!" complains Sanjay.

 

Farooque then calls up his next guest. A voice calls out to Sanjay from backstage, he appears puzzled at first but then quickly places it. It's actually Nargis's niece, Zaheeda (also an actress herself) who is a mother figure to Sanjay Dutt. The meeting is emotional. Zaheeda speaks how Sanjay would want her to be glamorous when she came to pick him up at school because Nargis would dress plainly. She also talks about how sensitive he was as a boy and recounts an incident when Sanjay threw a tantrum when a boy made scratches the Dutts' car and was slapped by the Dutts' driver. Sanjay, even as a young boy made sure they went back to see if the boy was okay.
We next see rare clips of Sanjay Dutt as a child with mother Nargis, watching which is emotional for both father and son.

 

We return from a break to hear about Sanjay's alma mater, Lawrence School, Sanawar and see a clip of the school and it's surrounding as well as its students today wishing Sanjay their best and asking him to keep the Sanawar flag flying high. In come his friends from school, Sarabjeet and Rajiv. They chat about their mischief at school - there's plenty of that to go around! Next we see a video message from Dayanita Singh who has been tying a rakhi to Sanjay since school, when Sanjay would pay her a two rupee note for the festival! She jokingly demands a better gift for next rakhi. Then we have Sanjay's friend and senior from school take us around for a glimpse of Sanjay's favourite haunts in Kasauli, the town near school. A surprise is round the corner for Sanjay - his favourite teacher from school days, Mr. Joshi. Mr. Joshi used to be a tough teacher but he looked after his students well, Sanjay tells us. Mr. Joshi recounts an example of Sanjay's mischievous and amusing antics where Sanjay and friends were caught poaching fish from a river! We return from the break to a video clip of Sanjay playing the drums for his school band, and the rock band Parikrama comes in to play Sanjay's favourite song - Santana's Black Magic Woman. And then pressed on by the audience and Farooque, Sanjay plays a couple of beats on the drums himself to relive his school drumming days.

 

We move on to Sanjay's first entering films. This actually happened when Sanjay was only twelve, in Sunil Dutt's Reshma Aur Shera where he appears in one shot in a qawali. We next have a message from Roshan Taneja under whom Sanjay trained for an year before joining films, and see a clip from the movie that was his debut - Rocky. There are poignant moments when Sunil Dutt recounts that the premiere of the film was on only three days after Nargis died.

 
Sanjay and his father also open up to talk about his problem with drugs and his courage in being able to come out of that as well as to put behind him the time when Sanjay was arrested under TADA. The Dutt family speaks about that traumatic time when Sanjay was confined to an 8 by 8 foot cell, and Priya recounts a touching incident about Sanjay saving up his prison coupons to pay her for rakhi when she meets him in prison with great difficulty for the festival. She still has the coupon kept with her carefully and shows it to us. One thing becomes clear - Sanjay has learnt from his mistakes and emerged stronger. Mahesh Bhatt is the next guest, the director of Naam, one of Sanjay's best performances. We see a clip from the movie itself and Mahesh Bhatt tells all about how Sanjay has been a close friend who has supported him and helped him out of an alcohol problem. A break later we meet with Sanjay's closest friends today - Sanjay Gupta (film-maker and Sanjay's business partner), Afsal Khan (producer and director) and Punkej Kharbanda (who is also his manager).

 

 

Next in is Sanjay's gymming partner Ajay Arora. And then we have a video message from good buddy Salman who recounts a funny incident about clean-shaving one of Sanjay's arms just before a shoot!

We return from a break to see a message from Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Farooque introduces the man who's now giving Sanjay Dutt in a new image - in comedy. David Dhawan enters and speaks about his association with Sanjay (which runs back to the time when David edited films - his first edit was a Sanjay Dutt movie).

Mahima delivers a video message to Sanjay in her true upbeat style and recounts an incident when he dropped her by accident!

The next guests are Mahesh Manjrekar and Namrata Shirodkar, director and co-star from Vaastav, a movie which has fetched perhaps the maximum acclaim for Sanjay Dutt as an actor. We see a touching clip from the film which has a sterling performance from Sanjay.

Back from a break we have a big pleasant surprise for Sanjay Dutt - one of his first crushes from school that he wanted to hold hands with - Kusum Bhambhri. After a while, Sanjay does manage to recognise her! We then have an emotional video message for her father from Trishala, Sanjay's daughter who is in the US. He then speaks with her over the phone as well, as do Sunil Dutt and Priya. It's time for the final Jeena snapshot, where everyone gathers together for a unique photograph. If there's one Star's life that has had it's ups and downs, from the tragic to the ecstatic and yet revealed that life is all about living, it's Sanjay Dutt's. Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai.