One has heard several stories about how Bollywood’s association with the underworld in the 90s. It was being said that the Hindi film industry was heavily influenced by Dawood Ibrahim. In a recent interview, journalist and author Hussain Zaidi has opened up more on this. Zaidi specialises in writing about the underworld. He’s written books like ‘Dongri To Dubai: Six Decades Of Mumbai Mafia’, ‘Black Friday’ among others.
In a recent interview, Zaidi has revealed that in those times, actors considered it a matter of pride to be associated with Dawood. He would give loan for many movies, give expensive gifts to stars. He added how Dilip Kumar, Rishi Kapoor have openly spoken about meeting him. He said in an interview with Pinkvilla, “Dawood didn’t want to earn money from films; he simply loved Hindi cinema. He loved all the heroines. All the film stars who would travel to Dubai, Dawood used to organise dinner for them. For instance, Dilip Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Amjad Khan… These people have even talked about it in their interviews about meeting Dawood. He has also given them expensive gifts. So, he wasn’t interested in Hindi films with the purpose of earning money. He just wanted to hobnob with them and be seen in that company.”
Hussain has also interviewed Dawood and he had also asked him about allegations of extortion from the industry. “I asked him why he was terrorising the industry, and he told me, ‘I love the film industry; they don’t need to be scared of me.’ This trend started with Abu Salem, who would extort money from filmmakers,” he said.
He further revealed, “He knew everyone—producers, directors, stars, and actresses. During that time, people spoke about their friendship with Dawood as a thing to be proud of. I won’t name anyone, but they would say things like, ‘I just spoke to bhai on the phone.’ Speaking to Dawood was a thing to be proud about. Because the police didn’t have a strong grip at that time, everyone was in touch with him. They saw nothing wrong in being in touch with him.”
Dawood also used the industry to convert his black money into white. “He didn’t fund films as a producer, but he would loan the money. At that time, there weren’t many studios, and the industry wasn’t institutionalized. So people would take Dawood’s money and invest it in their films, and in this way, his black money turned white. He would loan them the money, and after the film’s release, they would return it to him as white money,” said Hussain.
