Policemen and prisoners at the Yerwada jail on Saturday. Picture by Shailesh Mule/Fotocorp

Mumbai, Aug. 4: Sanjay Dutt as cook? That’s the role he has chosen for himself, if jailhouse chatter is to be believed.

“Sanjay hates prison food. It has no taste. How can he eat that kind of food? He hasn’t been allowed to get food from home, so he has decided to take things into his own hands,” said a relative of a prisoner who had interacted with him.

With 3,332 prisoners in Yerwada, the actor will have his job cut out.

He had a taste of it yesterday when he joined in the jail cooking. “Sanjay helped chop the vegetables. He didn’t do a very good job, but at least it helped to keep his mind off things,” a source said.

Sentenced to six years’ rigorous imprisonment, the actor’s aptitude will be tested before he is given work. Printing, pottery, tailoring, cooking, bakery, gardening and carpentry are among the choices.

Asked what he could do, Sanjay had told the authorities in Yerwada where he arrived on Thursday night that he could act. Jail officials are said to be keen that he supervise the entertainment programmes they are planning.

If the actor takes on the role of entertainment director and does not cook his own meals, he could turn to Prakash Mohite Tiffin Services, which has been serving food to jail inmates on request for the past 20 years.

Sanjay is not allowed home-cooked food. Nor can he choose when he wants to eat and will have to follow the jail routine: morning tea at 6.30am, breakfast at 8.30am, lunch at 11.30am and dinner at 5pm.

But he could ask the court for permission to order Mohite’s dabba. “At the moment, I have four inmates who take food from me. I charge Rs 900 a month. Arun Gawli loved my food. Although he was a vegetarian, he relished the food that I got,” said Mohite, after dropping off the dabbas at the jail gates.

Gawli’s reference might not work because his men had attacked Sanjay in Thane jail when he was imprisoned the last time.

But the menu of dal, roti, sabzi, dahi and papad for vegetarians with a choice of chicken or mutton for non-vegetarians could be inviting.

A far cry from the yummy biryani served at Lucky’s — the Bandra restaurant that’s a favourite with the actor — this is the closest he can get to home food while at Yerwada.

“My mother and sister cook this food at home. Any inmate who wants my dabba has to get special permission from the court,” says Mohite, proudly.

But maybe food is not a priority at the moment for Sanjay, who would be hoping to get out of jail soon.

A human rights activist who met him yesterday and offered Munnabhai a course on Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings, said “he listened keenly”.

But he “appeared doubtful about actually enrolling”, saying his stay at Yerwada was uncertain and “he might not be able to complete the two-month course”, said Aseem Sarode.

When Gandhi was in the same prison in 1922, he spent his time translating works of Marathi saints and fasting.