Nightmares Of Dream Merchants

It began as a marriage of convenience and ended in a dangerous liaison. After about a decade of amoral evenings and big parties, attended and organised by Bollywood honchos and the mafia respectively, the film industry has suddenly woken up to the fact that it has slept with the enemy.

While there is a section of the industry that has joined the mafia sans all qualms, there is another, more respectable group which has been milched (through extortion) mercilessly. In the fast-changing world of Bollywood, where more and more producers are aspiring in recent years to turn corporate, there is one feature that remains constant - the control which a few bad men sitting in Dubai or Karachi wield through their cellphones. The industry’s official position notwithstanding, its seamy underbelly has been difficult to conceal and truth comes - as is usually the case - off the record.

One such oft-cited stories that’s been doing the rounds for some time now is about Pardes and the Abu Salem connection. After the film was announced, Salem, a former D-company associate, rang up Subhash Ghai and said in a somewhat sheepish tone: "Sir, I called in to say that I want the overseas rights for Pardes. Don’t mistake me. I have been a fan of yours ever since I saw Karz." When Ghai explained that he had already sold the rights, Salem asked whether he would be able to have a cassette of the film so that he could pirate it in Pakistan. Ghai, it is believed, said he couldn’t "cooperate" even on that front. But eventually, Salem did get a cassette and many Pakistanis saw the film before it was released.

The moral of the story is that someone as big and clean as Ghai, who doesn’t need the underworld to finance his films, is often very close to being dragged into some kind of a ‘compromise’. He is, however, a bit confused on why the underworld dons, when they call him, never forget the reverend ‘sir’. "But there is always this fear when the cellphone will ring again."

Despite the overt respect with which Ghai is greeted by these callers, the big names of the industry are a worried lot. And in that Ghai too is, in fact, no exception. His bodyguard is a hulk who always shadows the showman and because of his size finds it difficult to fit into the front seat of Ghai’s relatively humble E220 Mercedes. J.P. Dutta’s reward for Refugee was police protection because he didn’t want to succumb to some shady voice and part with the overseas rights for an insignificant amount. The fear is complete and real. That the underworld’s control over the industry is exaggerated is purely the industry’s official position. Rakesh Roshan may say: "I don’t know why they shot at me. I never received any calls from any gang. And I have not paid any money after the incident."

But the truth is infinitely more complex. Asked why there’s no security at Roshan’s Santa Cruz office, even after the shooting incident, a top police official points out: "He has paid up Rs 2 crore to buy peace."

A good friend of his, who is also a prominent film personality, adds that Rakesh Roshan "called me one day very worried and said that some people were forcing Hrithik to sign films and do shows abroad".

RAKESH Roshan is paying a very heavy price for the rise of his son. Going to the police is not a solution. That’s why when our prime minister talked tough from the Red Fort on I-Day, some of us laughed, because we’re slaves of men from Karachi who just have to call us to make us dance to their tunes," he added.

Joint police commissioner (crime) Sivanandan, however, says: "Whenever the industry people have asked us for protection, we have been swift in providing it. We have also apprehended the guys who attacked Rakesh Roshan. They were some boys from Delhi. But the industry should also do some introspection. There are elements in the industry who involve themselves with the underworld and they have to be isolated."

There is this group which many in the industry call ‘seasonal’ producers who give Bollywood a bad name. It is believed that of the 125-odd producers who release films every year, some 40 of them are not regulars. Says a producer says. "These are the ones who are soft targets for the underworld which doesn’t know what to do with its huge stacks of cash."

That’s how, he says, a Sudhakar Bokade who was a small-time shopkeeper in Kaleena, finds money to make films. Recently when Chhotta Rajan’s (Rajan Nikhalje) brother Deepak Nikhalje collected an award for Vastav, the industry couldn’t come up with words to deny the mafia clout. Another name that has always been associated with the underworld is Sajid Nadiadwala's. One pointed question that a producer directs at him is: "Why do you think he never gets extortion calls?"

Nadiadwala defends himself: "All I can say is that God has been kind to me. And I hope I never get these calls. Ever since the personal tragedy of losing my wife Divya Bharti in unfortunate circumstances, the media has been trying to put two and two together. My family has been making films before the underworld was even born. Why should I want their money?"

It’s not just money that a section of the industry wants from the underworld. "Some people want the blessings of a Chhotta Shakeel or a Chhotta Rajan," a top police official says. Pahlaj Nihalani confirms: "Yes there are a few but very few, I should say, in the industry, who may want to use the underworld’s muscle power to help them further their ambitions."

That’s how a director close to Abu Salem had allegedly forced Govinda to give him dates for a year. And, a crime branch official says, that’s how a producer gets a call ‘requesting’ him to take Monica Bedi in his film, and that’s how a Rajkumar Santoshi gets a call asking him to take on Mamta Kulkarni. Asks the official: "Has anybody wondered why the market value of some stars never drop? These days not just big stars, even small actresses and music directors seek the underworld’s assistance in arm- twisting producers into giving them work. Abu Salem is not even a grassroots gangster. He was a real estate agent in Andheri. He became big only after he shifted base to Dubai. He got Gulshan Kumar killed to spread terror in the film industry and increase his clout. Dawood is believed to have ticked him off for this because it made things very hot for the gang."

Gulshan Kumar’s death is linked to the demand for overseas rights of his films, the same reason why Rajiv Rai (of Gupt fame) and Ghai began getting calls. The attack on Rakesh Roshan, some allege, happened after a collusion between Abu Salem and Ali Budesh (a Bahrain-based gangster). Every time Abu Salem strikes terror in the film industry, it is presumed to be a blow to Dawood who unofficially dons the mantle of the ‘protector’. Crime branch officials say that they have a list of eight to ten film producers who face a threat from the Abu Salem gang. The threat is not to their lives as much as to their huge rumoured wealth. "In the Rakesh Roshan incident," a police official says, "the intent was not to kill him but to scare him get the money out."

A producer, who received a threat call recently, says: "Once you start walking around with security, you get more calls from other gangs each wanting a share. So what do you do?"

But given the grimness of the situation, Ghai explains that deep down, the underworld is a fan of the film industry. "A misled boy who has joined a dangerous gang still loves Shahrukh Khan. He can’t help it. It’s a strange relationship." That’s why, the underworld wants to associate itself with filmstars rather than a banker who may possibly be far richer. Says the showman: There is this perception that the film industry has a lot of money. Nothing can be further from the truth. Showmen have a lifestyle that looks rich from outside. But nobody here has any money. The entire Hindi film is worth about Rs 1,000 crore. An Ambani can buy the whole thing off in a day. But it’s not just been extortion all the way. Over the last decade, while the film industrywallahs have been forced to pay up, it has also been pampered with parties and gifts.

Nihalani believes that the cable industry and piracy controlled by the underworld is what is killing the industry.

Now Ghai says good times are ahead. "The corporate culture will take off in a big way in the film industry. Already stars are accepting cheques. And all payments from Mukta Arts are made through cheques. Once the industry is run by money on paper, the underworld’s influence will be marginalised. We’ll be back to the studio culture." And milk and honey will flow. A thousand extras will line up and dance with joy.

But reality, somehow, seems harsher than the dreamy, rosy visions Ghai manages to conjure up.