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As many as 10 Bollywood personalities including successful producers, directors, even a film writer who wrote about the Karachi-based piracy racket have received the dreaded telephone call early this month demanding money if they desire a smooth passage for their work. All the calls were for a similar amount: Rs 1 crore, possibly negotiable. Police officials who have been tracking the developments say the calls were made by or on behalf of Chhota Shakeel.
On the fist are also a few first-time producers and an outstation film distributor. Police official are unwilling to disclose the names at this juncture but confirm that the extortion threats are for real.
From what can be gathered of the investigation so far, it appears that Chhota Shakeel and his cronies have lost close to Rs 25 crore after the Chori Chori… nexus was broken and financier Bharat Shah's more-than-cosy links with him were revealed. Shah, along with producer Nazim were arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), 1999, and are still cooling their heels in jail. The recent extortion threats are a way of making good that loss, say officials.
Bollywood sources say the threatening calls were received by some in the industry and that they were told to cough up the money at the earliest. Those who resisted were issued veiled threats to their work and fife. However, no one seems to have paid up so far. The intriguing aspect is that no one has filed a complaint either but the police say this is routine practice because the targeted person does not want to be identified. Also, he faces a bigger risk from the callers if he approaches the police.
A senior police officer confirmed the threats and stated that “Shakeel seems to have somewhat changed his modus operandi - from investing m films and looking for returns to demanding money upfront. We are going to continue tracking and watching the developments.”
There is also a change in the way such threats are handled, sources say. Earlier, extortion threats meant the film personality would approach middlemen, who would settle with the underworld dons through their own network. This meant that the police could be kept completely outside the circuit. However, after Shah and Rizvi were arrested and the application of MCOCA, which casts its net over middlemen too, that route of negotiation is not as open as it used to be but those targeted this time around have not yet approached the cops either.
On May 3, officers of the anti-extortion
unit foiled an underworld attack on owner of the money-spinning film lab
Adlabs Manmohan Shetty, studio proprietor Yusuf Lakdawalla and the late
music mogul Gulshan Kumar's younger brother Kishan Kumar. Eleven suspects
were nabbed. Bollywood, with its annual turnover of Rs 6,000 crore, has
been a favourite target for extortion in the last few years.
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