MUMBAI, Nov 13 — It sounds like a Bollywood thriller, but a spate of shootings and extortion threats targeting Mumbai’s stars has sent the industry scrambling for bodyguards, reviving memories of the underworld’s grip on cinema in the 1990s.
From gunshots to cash demands, the incidents have unsettled the Indian industry, decades after police crackdowns weakened the criminal gangs once deeply embedded in the multi-billion-dollar business.
Police have linked the latest violence to the gang of Lawrence Bishnoi, a convicted Indian gangster accused by US prosecutors of directing a global criminal network from behind bars.
“Stars are moving around with bodyguards on either side,” actor and security agency owner Ronit Roy said.
“There has been a sharp increase in demand... Requests have expanded beyond just lead actors, to include family members and children.”
Author S. Hussain Zaidi, a former investigative journalist, said opportunistic criminals were exploiting the notoriety of established gangsters.
“Some desperadoes are opening fire in the air to scare the industry and spread fear,” Zaidi told AFP.
“And they have succeeded – as people have started believing that the mafia-dominated 1990s era is back.”
The latest incidents include gunfire targeting actor Tiger Shroff’s car in Mumbai in October, and an alleged $600,000 extortion demand against actor Tusshar Kapoor.
Police have arrested 13 people under organised crime laws in connection with the October shooting, alleging it was intended to extort money, establish gang dominance and spread fear.
Police said there had also been surveillance of other prominent figures.
They have named Anil Pandit, an alleged Bishnoi gang member, as wanted in connection with the shooting.
Darkest periods
Anxiety reverberating across the industry has spilt into public view.
Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan recently greeted fans from behind a bulletproof enclosure outside his Mumbai home during his customary Sunday appearance, while security was beefed up around actor Shah Rukh Khan’s home for his birthday.
But Zaidi said the major gangsters of the 1990s were now dead, imprisoned or inactive.
“The only gangster we hear of these days is Lawrence Bishnoi and even he is in jail, so there is no way that any local Mumbai-based gangster has control over the city,” he said.
The late 1990s and early 2000s were among Bollywood’s darkest periods, when criminal syndicates used threats, extortion and violence to influence film financing, casting and distribution.
They included Dawood Ibrahim, a UN-sanctioned fugitive accused of involvement in the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people, and his former lieutenant turned rival Chhota Rajan, who is behind bars in India.
Producers were pressured to pay protection money, surrender business interests and bow to gangsters’ demands.
The underworld’s influence waned as police intensified operations, strengthened by laws passed in 1999 targeting organised crime, while the growth of corporate financing further reduced gangsters’ influence over the film business.
‘We will kill you’
Rajiv Rai, director of the hit thriller “Gupt”, received extortion demands and threatening calls in the late 1990s before eventually leaving India for Britain.
“I was the victim in the 1990s, the world knows,” he told AFP.
Watching the latest incidents unfold, Rai said the motives were harder to decipher.
Bishnoi’s gang has been linked to threats against Salman Khan, reportedly over allegations that the Bollywood star had hunted blackbuck antelopes in 1998.
The animals are revered by the Bishnoi community, a Hindu sect whose faith places strong emphasis on wildlife protection.
Indian authorities have also accused gang members of opening fire outside Khan’s Mumbai home and of involvement in the killing of Baba Siddique, a prominent politician with close ties to the film industry, in 2024.
After the October shooting targeting Shroff, a social media post and audio message attributed to a Bishnoi gang associate reportedly claimed responsibility, citing the actor’s closeness to Khan.
“In the 1990s, we knew their agenda... ransom money,” Rai said.
“Now they are calling and saying if you are Salman’s friend, we will kill you... now what kind of agenda is this?”
Ahmed Ali, a crime journalist, said he believed that “many of these seem to be prank calls, to cash in on the situation that Bishnoi has created”.
Producer Boney Kapoor, who was targeted by underworld figures over a dispute involving overseas distribution rights for his 1997 Salman Khan film “Judwaa”, believes the latest wave of violence will be “short-lived”.
“I don’t feel that kind of fear,” he said. “But one has to be cautious, these shootings can’t be ignored.” — AFP
