Recently it was reported that Sanjay Dutt is booked till 2011 with multiple projects in floors. Understandably so since he is the only veteran star from the generation of Anil Kapoor,
Jackie Shroff,
Sunny Deol and Mithun Chakraborty,
Read More">who continues to have a huge fan following and can get audiences rooting for him if he
Read More Recently it was reported that Sanjay Dutt is booked till 2011 with multiple projects in floors. Understandably so since he is the only veteran star from the generation of Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Sunny Deol and Mithun Chakraborty, who continues to have a huge fan following and can get audiences rooting for him if he really wishes so.
However, what also remains true is the fact that he is only star amidst other major actors who has the biggest line up of pending/stuck/almost shelved projects up his plate.
The situation today is that Sanju baba has close to a dozen odd projects that are still waiting to reach the deadline in spite of their target release timeline left behind long back.
Joginder Tuteja brings to you the status of where each of these films stand, what their makers have to say, whether these films will ever see the light of the day and if so, then when?
Film: Mr. Fraud
Original plan for release: 2006
Producer: Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision Ltd
Director: Abbas -Mustan
Co-stars: Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu, Tanushree Datta
Flashback
This Abbas-Mustan directed comedy had a fruitful London schedule way back in 2006. However, Sanjay Dutt's personal problems resulted in any further shoot being delayed while there were also hassles around combination dates of all the stars (Ajay Devgn, Bipasha Basu, Tanushree Dutta) as well. Close to 70% of the film was already canned but there was no subsequent progress. Even when Sanjay Dutt resumed work a few months later, there were no signs of revival of Mr. Fraud. Meanwhile, producers Shree Ashtavinayak went ahead and completed Kidnap and Blue with Sanjay Dutt.
Current state
As per Dhaval Mehta of Shree Ashtavinayak, the film can't yet be classified as 'shelved'. Even though there hasn't been any active shooting for the film during last couple of years (the same time period where Abbas-Mustan went ahead and finished three films - Naqaab, Race and Life Partner), Mehta still believes that the film may eventually see the light of the day.
"As of now, Mr. Fraud is on hold. Yes, the film's shoot had come to a halt a couple of years back, post which Sanjay Dutt wasn't available", says Mehta. However, Sanjay Dutt has been seen in a dozen odd movies during last three years. Why couldn't he spare time for Mr. Fraud? "Well, it's not just him in the movie. There are other big names like director duo of Abbas and Mustan, Ajay Devgn and Bipasha Basu involved. It is tough to get the combination dates of all", he defends.
Abbas-Mustan though threw the challenge back to Mehtas when questioned about the delay in film's shoot. "Please ask the producers about this. After the release of Race, we were ready to get started any time that they would have wanted. We have our dates available since after Race, we didn't have anything else on floors", says Abbas.
Final verdict: Uncertain