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Michael Jackson did not sing his famous song “Dangerous” keeping Charles Shobhraj in his mind but dangerous word has become synonymous with the name of Charles Shobhraj.

Charles Shobhraj has been one of the most infamous international criminal since 1970s.

As per news a film is going to be made on the life of Charles Shobhraj and Sanjay Dutt has to play the role of a suave criminal.

After playing the simple, golden-hearted Munnabhai, Bollywood top star Sanjay Dutt is set to metamorphose into a cold, calculating serial killer - a la Charles Shobhraj in a film called ‘Charles and I‘.

Made by People Pictures, the racy thriller will be helmed by ace director Prawaal Raman and tells the story of the enigmatic French criminal of Indian and Vietnamese origin who sent the police forces in half a dozen countries on a wild-goose chase.

This is not first time when a film covering life of Charles Shobhraj has been announced. Some years ago somebody had claimed to start such a film and Jacky Shroff was said to play the role of Charles Shobhraj. Even Photos of Jacky, sans his moustache to match with the face of Charles, were published by the media.

Years have passed since then and there is no trace of that film.

When Charles was deported to France from India in 1997 then also it was reported that he had charged Millions of Dollars from some Hollywood producer to give rights to make a film on his life.

Even that film did not come in to the existence and perhaps a documentary has been made on his life. Few books have been published on his life.

Charles has got a shrewd business sense also and its doubtful that producers of proposed hindi film can get rights from Charles so easily. He would be charging a huge sum of money and which does not seem possible to bear by hindi film makers.

It seems that this film will be loosly based on Charles like criminal and it will not be biographical film showing life of Charles.

It can be read in the sayings of producer also

“We are working towards delivering an action-packed, thrilling cat-and-mouse chase spanning five countries. The film takes us through the journey of two men. One who kills and cons people for pleasure and the glory of being world famous, and the other who will stop at nothing to bring the killer down. We are sure the audience will love it.”

Charles Shobhraj has been a criminal who has always got coverage on front page of newspapers. His charming personailty has been helping him a lot in his criminal adventures. And this has been always repeated that man is dangerously brilliant. He has got genius mind but his mind is corrupt and polluted. To do crime has been his hobby, his passion and he has been fulfilling his desire of adventure by doing crimes. To kill somebody has been a game for him. He has been skilled in mixing the poisons.

He has followed almost similar strategy to escape from the Jails but Jail authorities in several countries, even after knowing his past record, have been hynotized by his manouvering tactics.

Man has got so alert mind that in 1986-87 when his jail term in india was going to be finished and India was supposed to hand him over to Thailand where he was supposed to get life term for his past crimes, he escaped from Tihar Jail in a dramatic, but often repeated by him in the past also, way. He arranged a party in jail and gaurds were given sedatves and soon they fell unconscious and he escaped.

Then Charles Shobhraj had made more news than young prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his friend cine star Amitabh Bachchan and sulky cabinet minister VP Singh.

To everybody’s astonishment he was caught again after some days in a disco in Goa. It was strange to see that such a dangerous criminal who had successfully escaped from India’s one of the most secured jails, was so easily caught. Perhaps same police inspector, who had caught him in late 70s, had caught him this time also. Case was completely ambiguous.

Anyway court awarded him 10 more years in Indian jails because of his crime of escaping from the jail.

People realised it later that Thailand had a rule that if a criminal is not caught for 20 years then cases against him were supposed to be dropped and Charles knew this rule and he had 1 more year to save his life from Thailand authorities so he conspired to do a relatively little crime so that he could prolong his stay in Indian jails where he felt safe and where he could live a good life inside the jails.

During this period 1987-97 in Tihar jail he lived like a celebrity prisoner there and its said that he did not fear any of the jail authorities. He had extensively studied Indian judiciary and criminal law and he used to threaten jail authorties.

During this time his young lawyer Sunita, fell in love with him. He always gave spicy news items to the media.

Dont know how much truth in these rumours was, but sometime during the period of 1990-92, there was a rumour that he had written a book where he had explained the possible ways to kill VVIPs of the world. Authorities were astonished and disturbed by his deep knowledge about loopholes in the security systems. SPG was a new concept then and India already had lost one PM Indira Gandhi and perhaps Rajiv Gandhi also. His book was obviously sieged and banned. Perhaps it was just a rumour but there is no doubt in the dangerous nature of his brilliant mind.

After finishing his jail term he had tried his best to settle down in India. But India deported him in 1997 and sent to France because when he was caught in India in late 70s then he was holding a French passport. French government was also not willing to accept him but his French passport favoured his entry in to the France.

Then he spent few years there like a celebrity and earned money by selling rights for his biographies and documentaries based on his life. It seemed that now this dangerous criminal would spend time in a retiring way but he gave another schocking news to world in 2003 when he was caught in Kathmandu.
Since then he has tried a lot but he has not found his freedom again.

While suffering in Nepali Jail he has often praised Indian judiciary system and has said that there one could get a fair trial.

Political unstability in Nepal has affected his court case and its difficult to guess about his future. Will he ever come out of prison or will he die in jail? Nothing can be said at prseent. New political changes in Nepal may provide him some hope.

But in any case his life surely provides a great subject to make a film.

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Producer and director of proposed hindi film have chosen Sanjay Dutt to play the role of Charles Shobhraj.

On roping in Sanjay for the lead role, writer-director Raman said: “Charles is a complex character - a charming man with a dangerous mind and dangerous intentions. Finding the right actor who has the ability to exude all these qualities at the same time was a tough call. We were looking for an actor who radiates star power coupled with the finest acting prowess to portray Charles. The only actor in my opinion who fitted that profile was Sanjay Dutt.”

Aditya Shastri, CEO of People Pictures, said: “Sanjay is a terrific human being and a gifted actor who has the versatility to play diverse roles with unbeatable flair. Hence, we are very happy that he will be playing the lead role in ‘Charles and I’.

Sanjay Dutt also seems to be enthusiastic about the offer.

“It is a great role and I look forward to working on the film,” said Sanjay.

But why Sanjay Dutt? Because he has spent some years in Jail and has seen criminals closely there?

Sanjay may or may not be a good choice for this role. It depends on which phase of criminal career of Charles Shobhraj will be described in the film.

This is sure that by any means Sanjay Dutt now can not be shown as a 20-35-40 years old criminal. That age segment is the active criminal career segment of Charles Shobhraj. After that age he has spent his life mostly in Jails.

Sanjay Dutt has played Bhai type roles with good skill but this is not a Bhai type role. He has to be suave and subtle here. There will be less scope for heavy dialogues and drama based acting scenario in this role.

He is a good actor and perhaps he will give a good performance in this role also but still considering the exact requirements of the character, there is a name which could have done even greater justice to such a role.

Saif Ali Khan.

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