How Sanjay Dutt overcame addiction, prison and cancer

Brut India

"Stop hoping." Sanjay Dutt opened up about some of the toughest moments in his life, and how he overcame them.  : BeerBiceps

Transcript

00:00Please don't follow my life because it's not a heroic life.

00:05It's difficult.

00:06So learn from it, but please don't follow it.

00:18I had to make up my mind, number one.

00:20Number two is that what happens when you're into intense drug addiction.

00:25You get into a kind of a cocoon or shell.

00:29You become a loner, you become alone.

00:31You don't want people around you.

00:33You know, so I had become like that.

00:36And I was a very hard nut to crack there in school, in the rehab center.

00:42I was there for two years, which is very rare.

00:45I just couldn't accept the fact that I was a drug addict or, you know, stuff like that.

00:51So, I mean, I started realizing that there is so much more to life because

00:57there were 30 girls and 40 boys and we used to go out, we used to go boating,

01:02we used to go barbecuing and, you know, we used to do so much of fun stuff.

01:08And I started realizing is that this is what life is.

01:11And why was I missing that?

01:13You know, that 10 years of my life, I was in my room or in the bathroom

01:19or hiding, you know, even not interested in shoots, stuff like that.

01:24If this is what life is, then this is what I want to be.

01:28And that is how everything changed for me.

01:30What's your advice to kids dealing with drug addiction right now?

01:33I feel like, listen, I mean, there's no better high in life than what life is.

01:39There's no better high in life than your mother and father or your family,

01:42your brother, sister.

01:44You know, there's no better high than work.

01:47You know, there's no better high than all this.

01:49So, I mean, these things are just escapism.

01:54And I think if you guys are men and if you guys are strong,

02:00face that, whatever problems you have in your life, head on.

02:08There's one Hawaldar, Dilip Dada, who told me,

02:12he's saying, Sanju Baba, ek cheez bolo gaya?

02:14I said, nah, Dada, bola nahi.

02:16He's saying, yeh ummeet hai na, yeh ummeet karna chhod do yaar.

02:21So, I said, ummeet kaise chhod do lege?

02:24He's saying, hope hota hai na, hope band karo.

02:28I said, what do you mean?

02:29Yeah, I thought about it.

02:31So, you know, everybody hopes every minute for something.

02:37Every minute.

02:38I hope my interview goes well.

02:40I hope, you know, I get good money.

02:44I hope everything is fine.

02:46It's hope all the time.

02:48He's telling me to disconnect from hope.

02:52And he says, you won't realize when your time will go in the jail.

02:56I said, yaar, ummeet.

02:58I tried and I tried and I tried.

03:01I'm telling you, it took me about two, three months.

03:03I just stopped hoping.

03:05I hope my mulakat, my wife will come.

03:09I hope kuch ho jaye government mein, I get relief.

03:13I stopped that.

03:16And that was one of the biggest lessons for me,

03:18which I want to tell the people who are hearing this.

03:21Just stop hoping, yaar.

03:23And everything will come to you.

03:25Because the day I stopped hoping,

03:27the next thing I knew, I was out of jail.

03:34It was a normal day in the lockdown.

03:37And I walked up the steps and I was totally out of breath.

03:41I had a bath, I couldn't breathe.

03:44I didn't know what was happening and I called up my doctor.

03:47In the x-ray, my lungs were more than half covered in water.

03:52So they had to tap the water out and

03:56they all were hoping that it was TB.

03:59But it turned out to be cancer.

04:01Now how to break it to me?

04:03That was a big issue.

04:04You know, I could have broken somebody's face.

04:09So my sister came and told me.

04:11I said, okay, I've got cancer.

04:13Now what?

04:15So now then you start planning things and

04:17we'll do this, we'll do that, this will happen, that will happen.

04:20But I did.

04:22I did cry for about two, three hours.

04:24Because I was thinking of my kids and my life and my wife and my everything.

04:29You know, just these flashes come, you know.

04:32And I said, I've got to stop getting weak.

04:37So I decided, I didn't get a visa earlier.

04:39Then I just said, do this.

04:41The next thing I knew, I was on chemotherapy.

04:43But they told me, this will happen, hair will fall, this will happen.

04:47Vomiting will happen, this will happen, that will happen.

04:50And I just looked at her and I said, nothing will happen to me.

04:52No hair will fall, no vomiting will happen, nothing will happen to me,

04:56not even my bed.

04:57I'll lie on the bed, nothing will happen to me.

05:01And she kind of smiled.

05:05And I did the chemotherapy and I came back and

05:07I sat on that bike for one hour and I cycled.

05:13And I did that every day and every day and every day.

05:16And after every chemo, I did that.

05:18I did, I mean, it was crazy.

05:22I used to go to chemo in Dubai.

05:24I used to go into the badminton courts and play two, three hours every day.

05:29That is how you go to challenge this thing.

05:31It is not in the nature of a father to run away from the battlefield.

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