Author: J Dey
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 26, 2001
This is Chapter 2 of the sordid
saga between the underworld and Bollywood. Six months of lying low after
The Indian Express blew the whistle on the underworld interest in film
financing - Chhota Shakeel's interest in Chori Chori Chupke Chupke - the
underworld is back at what it knows best: extortion.
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.
