INDIA : Actor’s Arrest on Weapons Charges Threatens ‘Bollywood’

Now playing: a real-life, multimillion-dollar horror show for the Indian film industry, starring one of its biggest names.

The drama’s ending will tell a great deal about how justice is administered in this country, and may reveal who was behind one of the most diabolical terrorist attacks in Indian history.

Earlier this month, a Bombay judge sent Sanjay Dutt, the country’s muscular, home-grown answer to Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, back to jail, revoking his bail.

It was the beginning of an all-too-real nightmare for the magnates, producers and financiers of Hindi films and for their bookkeepers. According to industry sources, Dutt is currently involved in the production of at least 15 movies in which $13 million has been invested.

The shaggy-haired, 35-year-old macho actor is accused of illegally purchasing and possessing three AK-56 assault rifles and ammunition for them. Arrested in April, 1993, he was granted interim bail after a brief imprisonment.

The alleged suppliers of the rifles were the underworld dons blamed for the March, 1993, serial bombings that, by official count, killed 257 people and seriously wounded more than 730 others in Bombay.

Dutt’s father, a former movie star, now sits in India’s Parliament. His late mother, Nargis, is held to be the greatest goddess to have ever graced the Hindi-language screen. In this country, that combination of pedigree and influence usually would be enough in most situations to lead to a bending of the rules.

But Judge J.N. Patel, who had to decide whether to continue Dutt’s bail, refused to give the hulking, dark-eyed VIP from “Bollywood,” the Bombay-based film industry, a break.

Dutt’s lawyers pinned their hopes on an appeal to the Supreme Court. Veteran director-producer Prakash Mehra said if that gambit failed, the Bollywood moguls, in the guise of the Film Makers Combine, would petition the high court for Dutt’s release on “humanitarian” grounds.

“This judgment has left the film industry emotionally hurt, apart from the huge losses that they are going to suffer,” Mehra said.

“What is the fault of the producers? They should be allowed to complete the unfinished films.”

Dutt’s legal predicament is particularly sticky because he is charged under a tough Indian anti-terrorism law that requires a judge to keep him in jail unless there is a reasonable doubt of his guilt.

The actor admits buying the rifles, but says he kept only one, plus some ammunition, because he was worried about the communal violence that erupted in 1992 in Bombay.

Rubbish, Patel said. He accused the actor of being “fully aware” that a huge quantity of arms and explosives had been smuggled into India by the alleged mastermind of the Bombay bombings, Dubai-based crime lord Dawood Ibrahim, and his associates. Some of the accused even claim that Dutt allowed the storage of the terrorists’ arsenal at his residence.

The judge’s decision requires the actor be jailed until the Bombay bombing trial, which began Thursday, is over.

In opening arguments, the prosecution claimed the 193 accused planned follow-up attacks in New Delhi, Calcutta and other cities. The purported scheme to destabilize India was allegedly hatched with Pakistan’s help, or at its instigation.

A former drug addict, Dutt has led a troubled and well-publicized private life. His fans will now be watching to learn whether the title of his last box-office hit, “Khalnayak”--”The Villain”--is a coincidence or an apt description of its star.