'I am a Pathaan, shoot me if you want': Sanjay Gupta on how Shah Rukh Khan faced down the mafia
Dubai: There is a period of Hindi film history that everyone in the industry lived through and almost nobody discusses on the record. Between roughly 1995 and 2002, Mumbai's organised crime networks had a working relationship with Bollywood built on extortion, forced casting and, when that failed, bullets. Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta has now given an account of it, and the anecdote at the centre…
Dubai: Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta has recounted a story from the Mumbai film industry's struggle with organized crime between 1995 and 2002. During this period, the mafia had a working relationship with Bollywood built on extortion and forced casting. Gupta, who collaborated with writer Hussain Zaidi on the subject before, described how the industry's people were soft targets, with gangsters signing top actors and actresses onto films.
One notable incident involved Shah Rukh Khan refusing an offer from the mafia, stating, "I am a Pathaan, shoot me if you want." This act of defiance earned Khan respect from the criminals, as they acknowledged that at least one person in the industry would not bow to their demands.
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