MUMBAI - Soham Shah, simmering with the discontent caused by the debacle of “Luck” at the box office, has been rescued from the doldrums by none other than Sanjay Dutt.

Shah has been signed to direct a film for Sanjay Dutt Productions, but on one condition - the script has to meet Sanjay’s approval.

“Soham has been asked to write a script that works. Script writing is not his forte. He’s a good director, but not a scriptwriter. ‘Kaal’ and ‘Luck’ prove his poor script sense. He’s been sent to New Zealand to come up with a script that rocks. If he fails, he will only direct while someone else will write the film,” a source close to Sanjay told IANS.

Sanjay, in fact, rushed back from Cape Town for barely 24 hours to Mumbai for a meeting with the depressed and isolated director Shah. The actor stood by Shah like a pillar after he broke away from his parent organisation Dharma Productions.

“Luck”, in fact, happened mainly because of Sanjay. He was the first to sign on. The others followed. Initially, Sanjay’s role in “Luck” was supposed to be a cameo, but Shah insisted on turning it into a full-fledged role and adding a song for Sanjay, much to the annoyance of other prominent members of the cast.

The young director, isolated by his failure and smarting under the blow that was “Luck”, has now been packed off to New Zealand to write the script.

Speaking on behalf of Sanjay, his business manager Dharam Oberoi said: “Soham is definitely directing a film for us. I’ll make sure of it. And so what if he sacked my daughter Neha to sign Shruti Haasan for ‘Luck’? Soham has learnt the hard way who his friends are.”