There is a difference between Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan's situations. Dutt's career graph was stagnating when he was sentenced. Salman is right now at the peak of his career, more powerful as a star than ever before. The sheer amount of money riding on him shows the judgment is a tribulation for not just one person but the film industry itself. Salman has over Rs 200 crore riding on him in terms of upcoming film productions. More importantly, there is a Rs 500-crore deal Star India struck with him for exclusive telecast rights of all his films till 2017.
Put simply, the Star deal translates to a huge amount of ad-revenue, which in turn means, more than Bollywood, the entire industry is in some way affected. A five-year jail term now nullifies the mammoth deal.
In strictly Bollywood sense, the hardest hit are producers Sajid Nadiadwala of Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sooraj Barjatya of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Salman's two films in production right now. The five-year jail is bound to affect the schedules of these films, in turn hitting the entire film trade comprising distributors and exhibitors, since one film was scheduled to open around Eid and the other around Diwali this year.
Note the two dates of release - Eid and Diwali - and you realise the all-importance of the actor in Bollywood. No other actor has ever had releases on Eid and Diwali in the same year.
Therein lies the irony about Salman Khan. He is going in after finally spreading his wings to take a full-scale flight.
That is a long way to have come actually, after starting out with a controversy-ridden career in the early nineties. For most of the next two decades, Salman stayed second best to Shah Rukh Khan, who dominated as the unquestioned Badshah of Bollywood between the early nineties and the late 2000s.
Wanted in Eid 2009, paralleled by SRK's slowing down at the same time, changed it all. Dabangg, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, Dabangg 2 and Kick on following Eids altered the Bollywood equation. Salman had finally become number one.
The five-year jail term throws a question mark on any semblance of glory that might have finally come the actor's way. Its answer shows where the importance of being Salman Khan lies. His image of a Good Bad Boy Who Will Not Grow Up is such that it manages to retain blind faith of his followers even amidst all such chaos. Guilty of homicide or murder, Salman fans will lose no love for him.
For the star himself, the sentence should come as a relief in a twisted way. At least his fate no longer hangs in a limbo. Salman Khan will no longer weave his life and career around hunch or hope.
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