Sanjay Dutt recently attended the Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) annual convention at Delhi, where he spoke at length about his experience in jail, his struggle with substance abuse and a lot more.
Sanjay said the food he had in prison used to have flies in it, and also shared how he maintained his physique in the absence of a gym. The actor said he decided to work out inside jail after having gained too much weight due drinking before being incarcerated.
"In Pune jail, there are flies all over, billions of flies, in your hair, in your clothes and even in your food. Main makkhi nikaal kar daal pi jaata tha, mera co-accused daal nahin peeta tha. Maine usko bola, 'Yaar tu kab tak bhookha rahega?' Usne poocha, 'Tu makkhi wali daal kaise pi jata hai?' Toh main bola, 'Yahan protein nahi milta hai, daal mein protein hota hai' [I used to pick the flies off the lentils and drink it, but my co-accused couldn't. I asked him, 'How long will you stay hungry?' He asked back, 'How can you consume the lentils that have flies?' I replied, 'You don't usually get protein here, but these lentils have protein.']," the Times of India quoted Sanjay as saying.
He then talked about his workout regime inside prison. "Kaun kehta hai gym nahin toh workout nahin kar sakte? Maine jail mein kiya. [Who says you can't work out if there's no gym? I did it in jail.] I was 110 kg before I went to jail because I was drinking like a dog. One day, I was having a bath (in jail) and I looked at myself and thought, 'Yaar mera pet kuch zyada hi nikal gaya hai. Sanjay, kuch toh sharam kar yaar. [I had developed a paunch. Sanjay, have some shame.]' Then I started running in the yard, lifting huge buckets of water. I used to hit nails in the wall till my knuckles hurt and wrists swelled. But still, I used to do it every day, because I wanted to break through the pain," the "Munna Bhai MBBS" actor said.
Sanjay had been addicted to drugs for around 12 years, and said he had tried every kind of drug available in the world. "Substance abuse is something you do if you want to do it. Once you get into it, it's very difficult to let go of. It is the worst thing in the world. My journey with substance abuse has been about 12 years. There are no drugs in the world that I have not done. When my father took me to America (for rehab), they gave me a list of drugs and I ticked every drug on it, because I had taken all of them. The doctor told my dad, 'What kind of food do you eat in India? Going by the drugs he did, he should be dead by now'," Sanjay said.
