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The Hindi film industry in the 1990s was nothing short of wild west. The underworld had complete control over Bollywood and with every passing year, they kept tightening their grip over the producers, directors and actors who were literally dancing to the tunes of Dawood Ibrahim, Abu Salem and the likes. It was in the late 1990s that filmmakers like Ram Gopal varma started making films based on the underworld and films like Satya and Company started gaining recognition, but if the top cop of the era is to be believed, these films were also financed by the underworld.
In a chat with ANI, D Sivanandhan, who was the joint CP Crime Mumbai (1998-2001), said that films like Satya, Company, Daddy, Shootout At Wadala, Shootout At Lokhandwala were made to “lift the image of the gangsters. They were all funded and financed by them only.” Mohanlal’s role in RGV’s Company was based on D Sivanandhan. He even went on to say that films from the 1970s, like Deewaar and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar “were funded and financed by them.”
Coming back to the 1990s, Sivanandhan said that since the underworld was deeply involved in the funding of the films, they had complete control over everything. “Dawood Ibrahim could summon all the cinema actresses to Dubai and give them rewards and send them back,” he said and recalled that he once saw “one of the topmost actors” along with 83 other musicians and actors, who “went to Dubai to do an entertainment show for the daughter of Dawood Ibrahim. I saw them going on a special flight and coming back.”
Sivanandhan explained that at this time, the actors were under such fear that they couldn’t say no, and the police had no means of protecting them. “They (the actors) had no choice (of saying no) and we had no means of protecting them. Let me admit that. We didn’t take action against them,” he said and recalled an incident when Govinda admitted that he had to go and dance for the don, because he had no choice. “Actor Govinda admitted, ‘Hum kya karein? Jaake naach ke aayein hai (What can we do? We had to go and dance)’ We didn’t take any action.” He recalled that producers were “under mortal fear” and felt “they could be eliminated.” He also mentioned, “Remember Gulshan Kumar?” T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar was murdered in broad daylight on the streets if Mumbai and the underworld was behind the same.
Sivanandhan said that at this time, since the movie business did not have an industry status, they would have to struggle to arrange the finances, and would end up taking money from the underworld, who would give out loans at 60-80 percent interest rate. “If they didn’t give that, hell would break loose on the fellow who is a defaulter. That status changed because of the operations we did. We opened it up,” he said and recalled that it was because of their operations that the film business got the status of an industry and money started to come in from legal channels, unlike before.
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