The film was meant to be shot with an all new star cast and the narrative was such that there was no hero in the film. It was to be told like a documentary without glamorizing either the gangsters or the cops. Every character was the way they were in real life with good, bad and grey shades in them.
246 Tinsel
Roy had already decided that the film would start with the Oscar Wilde quote, “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future”.
Since Chika was still in mourning, Roy was doing double time in ZMI. He would also drive over to Chika’s apartment every second evening and keep him updated over a couple of drinks.
It was not as if Chika needed the updates, it was just that Roy empathised with his friend’s loss and wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.
Biju Mahajan, a young and talented Mumbai- bred editor who had assisted Ali in the making of Vikram was given the directorial reins of “MumBhais”.
Since the cast was to be comprised of newcomers who did not have a preconceived ‘image’, the casting was proving to be a worry.
That was when Biju came up with a masterstroke!
He suggested that, since ZMI was already big on television software creation, they could make a thirteen part casting reality show called “STAR HUNT – The Casting of MumBhais”.
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran 247
The plan was to flesh out twelve main characters in the film and shortlist six contestants for each role. In each episode the six shortlisted contestants for that role would get a chance to get into character and showcase their talent.
Each actor would then be judged by a panel who would give their comments on the performances. Finally the character would be selected, or rather elected, using SMS voting.
The thirteenth episode or the finale would feature all the twelve elected actors along with the rest of the crew and the Muhurat (Auspicious Start) of the film would be on the show.
Cee TV, a leading Hindi GEC channel, jumped at the innovative concept and agreed to market and run the show.
The TV show made a lot of sense. It gave MumBhais a lot of pre-publicity. The unknown actors became stars in their own right and it made enough money to finance 50 percent of the film.
Hindi television channels had always had an allure for their ‘Big Brother’ Bollywood, and Cee TV gained in that respect.
248 Tinsel
“The trend we started will pick up,” Roy prophesied, “in the years to come; most films will be publicised through television shows.”
The show was an unprecedented success and within three months, the cast and crew of MumBhais were ready to shoot.
Yet, while ZMI was on a roll, their success was also getting them some unsavoury attention.
The crime scene in Mumbai had changed drastically. Sailesh Shetty, the don who had helped them when they were being extorted a few years ago had shifted base to Sharjah soon after.
A couple of years later, in one of the by lanes of the Middle Eastern city, his Land Cruiser was surrounded by assassins in a meticulously planned attack.
The bulletproof windshield of the SUV was first shattered with a sledgehammer, and then Sailesh Anna and couple of his henchmen who were in the vehicle were riddled with semi-automatic fire. A couple of assailants had climbed on the bonnet of the SUV and pumped over 100 rounds into the trio in less than two minutes.
It was rumoured that the assailants were smuggled into Sharjah via Dubai port by Raja.
250 Tinsel
Everybody knew that ZMI was under Raja’s protection, so they were spared from the extortion calls that the Hindi film industry bigwigs were subject to in the early 2000s.
A music mogul and big time film producer was shot dead, so was a director with links with a rival gang. Another reputed director was shot at in his own office and though he survived the attack, he quit the industry and settled in London with his actress wife.
What’s more, the producer-director father of an upcoming superstar was also shot at and seriously injured for standing up to the extortionists.
With most of the Dons fleeing the country and operating from long distance, their henchmen in the city were on a recruitment drive. Young men who idolised these gangsters were recruited from bars, gambling dens and the sprawling slums of Mumbai. They were armed with country made revolvers from Bihar and let loose.
Film producers and builders were the prime target. The modus operandi was that they would get a call from an international number. If they
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran 251
refused to pick up the number or play tough, a few ‘new recruits’ would pay their office a visit, brandish their weapons and give them the international number to call, if they wanted to live.
Then one day what was considered impossible, happened. Raja’s impregnable fortress in Bangkok was breeched.
The timing of the attack was too good to be coincidental. Most of Raja’s dreaded shooters were out on assignments and only the number cruncher Mukesh “Battery” Bhosle, a few trusted lieutenants, and his wife were in the apartment that fateful morning.
The attack was outrageously daring and planned to perfection. It was unthinkable that anybody would dare attack the lion in his own den, and it was exactly that false sense of security that led Raja to be a bit lax.
A dozen shooters armed with automatic weapons barged into the apartment at the break of dawn with commando precision.
Within seconds, six of Raja’s henchmen including Mukesh Battery were shot dead. Awakened by
252 Tinsel
the gun shots Raja came out of the bedroom guns blazing. But being outnumbered as he was, he immediately took three bullets on his torso and stumbled back into his bedroom locking it from the inside. He screamed at his terrified wife to hide in the bathroom and stumbled to the veranda.
The apartment was on the third floor and it was a thirty feet drop but he had no choice. He could hear the shooters shoot the lock and trying to kick the door open.
Taking a deep breath, he sprang from the balcony towards the canopy of the shop below. The canopy broke his fall but was not strong enough to take his weight and collapsed with him in it. The iron framework of the canopy broke a couple of his ribs, but he was beyond pain.
Fortunately, the local shopkeepers knew him and immediately carried him inside. The assailants were scampering down to finish the job when they heard the police sirens and scooted off in their motorcycles.
Within minutes, the cops cordoned off the place and admitted Raja to the emergency ward of the
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran 253
civic hospital under police custody. Fortunately, Raja’s wife stayed hidden in the bathroom and survived the attack.
The surgeons extracted three bullets from his body and mended the broken ribs. Raja had survived, but only just. One bullet had damaged his kidney and he would need dialysis for a long time till he found a matching donor.
A week later, Raja was ‘extracted’ from the hospital by his associates while the cops looked the other way. It was rumoured that a powerful Indian intelligence wing had facilitated his escape.
The attack on Raja changed the landscape of crime in Mumbai. Nobody was sure if he had survived the attack and what condition he was in. There were questions asked if he could control his gang anymore? Many of his loyalists lost confidence in his leadership and joined his rivals or founded their own gangs.
All of a sudden, all the businessmen who were under the protection of Raja started getting extortion calls. The tone and the content was the same.
“If we can get your father in his own den, think what we can do to you! Your father can’t protect you anymore. The coward is hiding to save his own ass!!”
As expected, ZMI also got the dreaded call.
Roy saw the international number flashing on his cell phone and knew immediately. Every day the phone rang and Roy avoided answering it.
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran 255
Couple of weeks later, the call came to
the ZMI board landline and the unsuspecting telephone operator transferred the line to Roy.
The guttural voice first hurled the choicest
abuses on Roy for not answering his cell phone.
Then the voice threatened to kill him, his partners and their families if ZMI did not cough up Rs 5 crores in a week’s time.
That evening, Roy and Ballu drove over to Chika’s apartment for a meeting. Though Ballu was in favour of paying the money after negotiation, Roy and Chika reasoned that if they paid the money, news would spread that they are soft targets and more such demands would follow.
They decided to take a stand and made a formal complaint to the Anti-Extortion Cell of Mumbai Police.
On reaching the headquarters, they were told that a new ACP had taken over the cell. 40 years old and from the 1985 Indian Police Service (IPS) cadre, Kaviraj Chavan had just been transferred from Beed, a district in interior Maharashtra.
256 Tinsel
Kaviraj was extremely ambitious and had a reputation of being a tough taskmaster. The fact that he was related to an ex-Chief Minister along with his daredevilry in gunning down dacoits in the outskirts of Beed, made him one of the youngest ACPs in the state.
Kaviraj was courteous and heard them out. He instantly realised that Chika and Roy had connections with Raja’s gang.
Chika and Roy then explained to him how Raja had extended an olive branch to them during the making of Vikram.
“You were lucky then…” he reprimanded, “you were playing with fire, if Vikram had sunk, both of you would have been dead or better off dead. Now that you have run out of luck, let me see what my team can do for you. But you must do something for the Maharashtra Police Force too, after all, we work 24 x 7 to keep you safe!”
Chika immediately took out a cheque of Rs Five Lakh drawn in favour of “Maharashtra Police Retirement Fund” from his pocket and handed it to him. At the same time Roy dug out a small
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran 257
gift wrapped box from his satchel and gave it to him.
“Congratulations on your promotion and your new posting Sir.”
“What is in it?” the ACP asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
“It is an original Swiss made, gold plated Rolex watch Sir,” replied Roy with a smile, “it will complement your personality!”
“Thank you and you can call me Kavi,” the
officer smiled for the first time.
Kaviraj then called in couple of his senior officers.
“This is Sr Inspector Rajesh Shinde and he is Head Constable Bajrang Ombade,” he introduced.
“Shinde, I want you to tap their office, residence and mobile phones. I want two armed plain clothes men in their office all day.” Then he turned to Chika and Roy and said “You please organise armed private security for yourselves, I am short staffed and phones are ringing in all corners of Mumbai!”
258 Tinsel
As expected, the very next day, Roy received a call and the angry voice threatened them with dire consequences for going to the cops.
A tense week followed. Then hell broke loose. Roy and Chika were returning from the shoot of MumBhais at the Film City in Goregaon when suddenly a bicycle was pushed in front of their car, forcing their chauffer to brake hard. Immediately, two motorcycles came up on both sides and the pillion riders pumped bullets into their car. Their bodyguards returned fire and the assailants beat a hasty retreat. Though the bullets shattered the windows, fortunately nobody was hurt.
“The shooters were probably rookies who panicked when your guards retaliated,” Kaviraj told them when they met up in his office the same evening. “The idea was possibly to scare you than to kill you.”
“If that was the plan, they are gravely mistaken,” Chika replied grimly.
Roy looked at Chika, he had heard this tone before. It did not bode well for the assailants.
“We will keep you posted, Kavi. Thanks for everything,” Chika said and they left.
The next few days, Chika’s intelligence network of bar waiters and servers was put on full alert.
In less than a week, Chika had the full report. The attack on them was carried out by a small time gangster from nearby Govandi called Rashid Kunju.
Rashid Kunju was a Raja loyalist who switched allegiance to the Karachi based Don’s gang after the attack on him. He had now been entrusted with extortion in the Central Suburbs which was Raja’s erstwhile stronghold by the Don.
Chika called the unobtrusive private detective Ram Shastri and asked him to tail Kunju 24 x 7 and submit a report of his movements. Then they bided their time.
As expected, Roy got a call from the same number the next day.
“This was just the trailer…” the guttural voice said,
260 Tinsel
“If you don’t pay up, we will show you the whole movie!” and laughed gloating at his own wit.
“The trailer was not very hard hitting. Your movie is going to flop,” laughed Roy back.
Losing the humour, the voice screamed “You sister fucking bastard, you will drive yourself and your family to an early grave!” and hung up.
The same day, even without consulting his wife, Roy booked Rita and Zasha for a three week European tour.
Rita was not pleased. After years of legwork, she had just managed to start her dream project. A charitable Non-Government Organization (NGO) for children of the riot affected called “Society for Rehabilitation of Riot Affected Children” (SRRAC) and had lot of work to do.
She protested vehemently, but Roy was adamant. Since it was the beginning of September and the middle of the school term, Roy met the Principal of Zasha’s school and explained matters to her.
Five days later, Roy let off a sigh of relief when they boarded the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran 261
International Airport, at Sahar - Mumbai, to begin their tour.
The next morning, he had a closed door meeting with Chika and Ballu.
Ram Shastri had tailed Kunju for a week and had noted his activities, habits and weaknesses in his detailed report.
One glaring chink that they found in Kunju’s armour was that he visited a dance bar called Ricado every evening. Ram Shastri had also mentioned that at the bar, the centre of Kunju’s affection was a young dancer called Tulsi. He was evidently quite besotted by her.
Tulsi, whose real name was Shabnam Ansari, was a 16 year old illegal immigrant from Bangladesh but maintained that she was a Hindu from Howrah District, near Calcutta.
Kunju was at Ricado every evening at 8:00 pm like clockwork. He would then shower his newly earned riches on her as she swayed to the latest Bollywood chartbusters for him, while cajoling her to spend the night with him.
Tulsi was repulsed by the ugly brute of a man but played along, promising a lot but giving
262 Tinsel
nothing. Recently, after his new found alliance and subsequent power, Kunju had become more aggressive and quite unbearable to Tulsi.
Moreover, she was losing customers because an inebriated Kunju would pick up fights with any other customer who patronized her. Even the bar owner had threatened to kick her out of the job, because of the nuisance created by Kunju.
Tinsel Page 16