The Hindu : The terror nexus

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 02, 2002

Opinion

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The terror nexus

FOR MANY YEARS now, it is an open secret that the real villains of Hindi cinema are not those who appear on screen; rather, they are those who operate furtively behind the scenes, trying to establish a stranglehold over the entire industry through a mixture of coercion and brutality. The mere fact that the underworld don Chota Shakeel conducted telephone conversations with four film personalities, including the actor, Sanjay Dutt, should surprise nobody. It was known much earlier that transcripts of such conversations existed; in fact, they have been repeatedly referred to in connection with the ongoing Bollywood-underworld nexus case involving the diamond merchant and film financier, Bharat Shah. But the contents of the leaked transcripts are extremely revealing and what they divulge is a story which is worrying and well worth taking note of. What the tapes suggest is that the stranglehold of the mafia over the Hindi film industry is almost total, or at any rate much greater than what was assumed before. Read as a whole, the manner in which favours were ingratiatingly sought from Shakeel, the veiled threats issued by the gangster and the references to other films and the manner they are financed paint a picture of an industry on which the mafia has a vice-like grip.

The freewheeling conversations, which are stated to have taken place a couple of years ago, show a number of people in less than favourable light, starting with Mr. Sanjay Dutt who appears to have enjoyed Shakeel's complete trust and confidence and who seemed to be on extremely familiar terms with the gangster. The tapes also suggest that Mr. Shah, arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MOCA) early last year but now out on bail, was the person behind a blockbuster released only very recently. Known as the King of Bollywood, it was Mr. Shah's alleged use of underworld money to fund the film "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke" which landed him and the film's official producer, Nazeem Hasan Rizvi, in trouble. Their links with the Dubai and Pakistan based Shakeel — key lieutenant of the dreaded Dawood Ibrahim and accused in a number of cases including those relating to the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts — are the subject of the sensational case which involves illegal funds, underworld connections and a plot to kill a young and successful filmstar.

The Shah-Rizvi case was preceded by a number of incidents which revealed the links between mafia gangs based abroad and the Hindi film industry. The killing of the entertainment moghul, Gulshan Kumar, the murder of the film producer, Mukesh Duggal, and the attempt on the actor, Rakesh Roshan's life are some of them. But the Shah-Rizvi case was expected to be the catalyst which would trigger off a serious crackdown on the underworld-Bollywood nexus. True, it provoked some positive measures. Bollywood was accorded "industry" status to encourage banks and other financial institutions to lend money for films and encourage transparency in film financing. Raids by Income Tax officials with the particular focus on searching for evidence of money that could be stashed away abroad were also conducted. What the transcripts of the tapes reveal, however, is that much more needs to be done if the connection between the mafia and the film industry is to be truly severed. It is not the Dawood-Shakeel gang alone which operates in the industry. Others run by men such as Abu Salem continue to exercise an adverse influence. The key to the problem is to create the conditions which permit the industry to operate with legally borrowed money and without the risk of reprisal. This will require considerable political and administrative will, but it is absolutely necessary if the dangerous liaisons between the filmworld and the underworld are to be terminated.

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