Bollywood’s Sanjay Dutt Will Go to Prison

Rajesh Nirgude/Associated Press Bollywood Actor Sanjay Dutt arriving at a trial court in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in this Oct. 22, 2007 photo.

India’s highest court upheld the conviction of the Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt on charges of illegal possession of guns supplied by the masterminds of the 1993 Mumbai bombings, but it reduced his prison sentence by a year to five years.

The Supreme Court also commuted the death sentence of 10 convicted in the bombings to life in prison. Only one of the 11 sentenced to death, Yakub Memon, the brother of the fugitive Tiger Memon, one of the prime suspects in the bombings, had his death sentence upheld.

The court also upheld the life sentence for 16 out of 18 other convicts.

The 1993 attacks, which left 257 dead, was orchestrated by a Mumbai criminal syndicate, Indian courts have determined, in response to the razing of a 16th-century mosque by Hindu extremists in 1992.

Mr. Dutt, a beefy heartthrob often spotted wearing thick gold chains around his neck, has enjoyed many decades of stardom in India’s homegrown film industry. The son of the late Sunil Dutt, an actor turned politician, and the late Nargis, the iconic actor of the film “Mother India,” Mr. Dutt belongs to one of the most prominent Bollywood families. His sister Priya Dutt, who was present in court Thursday, is a legislator in the lower house of Parliament.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Dutt’s plea that he should be out on parole or granted probation for his good conduct in the past.

“Sanjay Dutt is a strong man,” said Satish Maneshinde, Mr. Dutt’s lawyer.

In 2007, Mr. Dutt was acquitted on terror charges related to the 1993 attack but was convicted under the Arms Act, which covers possession of weapons. Mr. Dutt’s defense team said that the actor possessed the weapons, an AK-47 automatic rifle and a 9-millimeter pistol, because of the dangerous atmosphere in Mumbai at the time.

He received a six-year prison sentence and served 18 months, after which he was granted bail while his case was being appealed in the Supreme Court.

In the meantime, he has continued to act in blockbusters, often playing a cop chasing down terrorists or criminal syndicates. In his most popular role, in the film “Munnabhai M.B.B.S.,” he plays a lovable mobster who enrolls in medical school.

It isn’t unusual in India for big stars to be enmeshed in court cases and continue to act in films at the same time, thanks to India’s crawling legal justice system. Mr. Dutt’s lawyer said the movies his client has in the pipeline will have to wait.

Thursday’s verdict brings to an end to the Mumbai bombings trial, which had dragged on for the last two decades. Mr. Dutt’s conviction in 2007 was hailed by some commentators as a sign that the legal system could deliver justice even in the case of the rich and powerful. His colleagues in the film industry, however, continued to rally support for the star and point out that the actual perpetrators of the attacks are still missing.

“Heart Broken: Just heard that Sanjay Dutt has to go to jail for 5 years. I expected mercy! Alas it did not happen,” the Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Dutt, along with the others whose verdicts were upheld, is likely to have a month to surrender in court. Some analysts said Mr. Dutt could file a review petition during that time period, but Mr. Dutt’s lawyer declined to comment on that, saying that he has yet to receive a copy of the court order and analyze the judgment.

“We’ll sleep on the judgment and look at it tomorrow,” Mr. Maneshinde said.