Sanjay Dutt faces harsh realities of life in prison

The updates: From bollywood riches to a hard life in prison Bollywood star Dutt, one of Bollywood's highest-paid actors reportedly earns more than $500,000 (U.S.) per film - but now serves as an apprentice in the jail's carpentry workshop.

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt began a six-year sentence for receiving guns from gangsters, officials said on Wednesday has chosen carpentry as prison labour for which he will get paid about half-a-dollar a day,

Dutt, 48, was sentenced last week for getting an AK-56 rifle and a pistol from gangsters linked to India's deadliest bombings, which killed 257 people in Mumbai in 1993. .

"As a normal procedure, he has been asked to choose some work and he chose carpentry," a jail official in the western city of Pune, where Dutt is lodged, said.

Dutt has to live a simple life and earn his living by working inside the jail like other inmates. The jail authorities will assign him the work today, as part of his rigorous imprisonment. .

According to sources, the kind of work that a general convict needs to do inside a jail, includes cooking food, cleanliness work, carpentry, and tailoring etc.

Dutt is reported to be struggling with the harsh realities of prison life - his cell has no fans and he shares a common toilet and bathroom.

The newspapers said Dutt felt uncomfortable in the coarse prison uniform - a striped white shirt with white pyjamas and a white cap.

Jail authorities say Dutt is being treated like his fellow prisoners - eating a basic Indian diet and wearing prison clothes.

A spokesman says, "There's no special treatment, his day started today like that of any other inmate." Dutt can appeal against his sentence.

Family and friends of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt visited him in the high security P Yerawada jail here.

His younger sister Namrata came along with her husband and actor Kumar Gaurav and another close friend of Sanjay also visited him.

It was a sleepless night for Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who spent his first night at Special Cell 2 of the Pune's Yerawada Jail on Thursday.

Dutt's sentence has evoked mixed reactions in the public and the media, with conflicting opinions regarding his punishment coming up everyday.

Many people term the actor's sentence as harsh, and feel it should be reduced.nother faction feels letting him off would be a mockery of justice, as he is a criminal and should be treated as one.The Dutt family is challenging the judgement given by a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court for the illegal possession of arms on July 31.

Special Judge P D Kode sentenced Dutt to six years imprisonment in prison and fined him Rupees 25,000.

Dutt has already spent nearly 16 months in prison before his release on bail in 1996.