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Journalism of Courage
Real life policemen and women have inspired many a Bollywood flick from the fictional dare devil lady cop acts in the Kiran Bedi inspired eighties and nineties to the more realistic cop sagas on Mumbai8217;s infamous encounter specialists, post Satya. As Black Friday puts the spotlight on a new set of star cops, here8217;s a take on famous policemen in Hindi films down the years.
YC Pawar: Om Puri8217;s no nonsense angry cop act in Ardh Satya was said to have been inspired by Mumbai8217;s the then Additional Commissioner of Police ACP YC Pawar, who became famous for driving out the central Mumbai based don Vardharajan Mudaliar. Mani Ratnam8217;s Nayakan glorified and changed the way we looked at Mudaliar, though Pawar8217;s celluloid interpretations continued the tough cop image in the portrayals of Nasser Nayakan and Aditya Pancholi in the film8217;s Hindi remake Dayavan.
D Shivanandan: The soft spoken former joint commissioner of Mumbai police perhaps courted maximum media buzz when Ram Gopal Varma inked in the Malayalam superstar Mohanlal to reprise a character based on him in his underworld saga Company, inspired by the Dawood Ibrahim-Chota Rajan split. For once the Mumbai police didn8217;t complain about on-screen portrayal.
Daya Nayak: From providing creative inputs for Ram Gopal Varma8217;s Company to inspiring films like Ab Tak Chappan and Kagaar, Nayak, whose career may be in a flux, has emerged as one of Bollywood8217;s most common reference cop, with even a Kannada film, Encounter, based on his life.
Rakesh Maria: Apart from having an inspiring performance based on him by Kay Kay in Black Friday as the young police officer heading the investigations into the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts ACP Maria also happens to be one of the first police officers to be portrayed as himself and in the lead in a Hindi cop film, instead of being a mere larger than life alleged inspiration like his predecessors.
Amarjeet Singh Samra: The ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner during whose tenure the Mumbai bomb blasts case was solved may not have had as meaty a role as Maria in Black Friday, but his signature turban and matter-of-fact speak did more than amply remind us of the first Sikh commissioner of the Mumbai police, and one of its most questioned faces through the blast investigations.
Aftab Ahmad Khan: ACP Aftab Ahmad Khan8217;s controversial six-hour long encounter with five members of Dawood Ibrahim8217;s gang in Mumbai8217;s Lokhandwala Complex in 1991, is the plot of the soon to be released Shootout at Lokhandwala that has Sanjay Dutt reprise his character onscreen. His team8217;s dare devil policemen like inspector Kaviraj Patil and constable Javed Shaikh are played by Suneil Shetty and Arbaaz Khan, while Abhishek Bachchan plays police inspector Abhishek Mahatre, who had a key role in the shootout.
8212;Piyush Roy
