One of Bollywood's biggest stars Sanjay Dutt was convicted yesterday of illegally possessing weapons but is unlikely to be sent to prison for a long period - sending a sigh of relief through the film industry, which has crores of rupees riding on his return.

In a packed courtroom, he was cleared of the more serious charge ofconspiracy in a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed 257 people in1993.

Dutt, who is among 123 people accused in a trial that has taken morethan a decade to wend its way through India's legal system, was foundguilty of possessing three assault rifles, a pistol and hand grenades. "I have not found that he [Dutt] was a terrorist or was destructive,'' the judge said.

The 47-year-old actor, who has already served 18 months in jail, wasreleased on bail for four weeks to allow him to take care of "personalbusiness'' and complete several Bollywood projects.

Legal experts said the usual sentence was three years but as he hadalready spent time behind bars he was unlikely to face a lengthy spell in jail. "There's (every) chance he will escape a custodial sentence or serve a short (period) only, " Majid Memon, a leading criminal lawyer in Mumbai, told New Delhi TV.

A star of 105 films, Dutt had long revelled in his bad boy image. Hedrank and smoked heavily and had a public history of drug abuse. His two marriages failed in the full glare of the media spotlight.

But lately he has displayed an unexpected comic ability and had two huge hits: Munnabhai MBBS, which is being remade by Hollywood, and its sequel Lage Raho Munnabhai (Keep on going Munnabhai), India's biggest movie this year, which led to a mini-revival of Gandhi's philosophy around which much of the film's humour revolves.

Dutt has two films in the can, two awaiting final touches and four morein the pipeline. "I am very happy for Sanjay. The whole gun thing wassomething perhaps he simply got carried away with. But he is loved by the industry,'' said Prakash Jha, a respected Bollywood director.

The case marks a turning point for Bollywood and crime. It is now widely acknowledged that gangsters called the shots in the Indian movie industry until the early nineties. At that time criminals used film-making to launder money and subtly influence politicians wary of Bollywood's public following.

But things changed after the 1993 blasts where some Muslims sought totake revenge on Hindu mobs who had torched and killed innocents acrossIndia and pulled down a 16th century mosque. Dawood Ibrahim, who is on the run accused of masterminding the blasts, had links with many Bollywood stars, inviting them to family parties and weddings.

These days the Bollywood establishment is no longer seen in the companyof the Indian mob. The Dutt case may have been part of the reason for this change of heart as his incarceration was a warning shot that theauthorities would crack down.

Dutt's father Sunil was a Hindu, and his mother Nargis a Muslim. Bothwere at the heart of Indian film aristocracy and became influentialpoliticians. In arresting him public prosecutors stressed that no one was above the law.

"In the eyes of the common man he's atoned for his sins. In India there's a great tolerance for bad guys with good fathers. We cannot believe that he could be such a bad seed from such a family,'' said a film critic.