Authors: S. Hussain Zaidi
Rizvi’s modus operandi was not very complicated at all. His job was to visit the sets on which Salman and Shah Rukh were working at the time and meet them. After a few threats in the past from Salem, Shahrukh strictly avoided meeting any shady strangers. Consequently, whenever Rizvi tried to approach him or turned up on the set, Shahrukh avoided him like the plague. A frustrated Rizvi complained to Shakeel about how he had tried his best to approach Shah Rukh but was thwarted every time. There was even an instance when Shahrukh fled to Rani’s vanity van and sat there for over an hour before inexplicably disappearing from the set. When Rizvi complained to Shakeel on the phone, the Crime Branch cops were listening. They were soon to become familiar with a new set of nicknames for Bollywood’s stars.
In the course of keeping tabs on the developments in this Bollywood-underworld nexus, the police realised that the underworld had a unique set of code names for members of the film fraternity. Just as the underworld had its own lingo for a gun, a car, or money, there was now a list of names used to refer to certain big names inconspicuously to avoid detection. The names ranged from the obvious
Jodi
(pair) for Abbas-Mustan, BS for diamond merchant and film financier Bharat Shah and
Pehelwan
(muscular man) for Salman, to the amusing
Chikna
(chocolate-faced) for Hrithik Roshan and
Takla
(baldy) for his father Rakesh, right to the offensive
Hakla
(the stutterer)
for Shah Rukh.
A transcript of several conversations between Chhota Shakeel and Rizvi, which later became part of the chargesheet against Nazim Rizvi, Bharat Shah, Chhota Shakeel, and other aides, became a gold mine of information for the Mumbai police. One such transcript is produced below.
Rizvi:
Chikne ka show hai. Yeh Hakla hai apna, usmein jaa raha hai.
[Hrithik has a show and Shah Rukh is going for it].
Shakeel:
Achha.
[Okay].
Rizvi:
Kyonki kya hua tha, aaj mujhe pata lagaa ki apne yahaan jo hai na
Rani? [Do you know what happened today? You know Rani Mukherjee right?]
Shakeel:
Haan, haan.
[Yes, yes].
Rizvi:
Aaj yeh apna Hakla aayaa aur uski van
mein ghusa raha. Dedh ghante tak. Toh main usko bola ki jaate time zara mujhko milke jaana, meri van mein
. [Today Shah Rukh came and sat in her van for around an hour and a half. I told him to come and meet me in my van before he left the set.]
Shakeel:
Haan.
[Yes].
Rizvi:
Bola aata hoon lekin yeh chupke se nikal gaya vahaan se, maine maloom kiya.
[After telling me he would come and meet me, I found out later that he had quietly slipped away].
Shakeel tried to reassure Rizvi that he would take care of Shah Rukh because the don could see that Rizvi was beginning to get desperate, losing whatever little composure he had left.
In Rizvi’s moments of anxiety, he would regularly visit Salman and say politely, ‘Excuse me, Salman Khan. Could you please speak to Shakeel bhai?’ The muscular movie star did not take him seriously at all and snubbed him regularly. Rizvi was very often dragged kicking and screaming to the gates and kicked off the set by the security guards there.
Fed up with Rizvi’s incompetence, Shakeel sent his henchman Anjum Fazlani to the set one day, armed with nothing but a mobile phone and the tangible air of confidence a life of violence affords. Fazlani walked in and handed the phone over to Salman, telling him that Shakeel was on the line and wished to speak with the actor. Salman took the phone and found himself backed into a corner, with no possible way to deny Shakeel his demands. Salman was forced to work in the film. Shakeel funded it, pumping 15 crore rupees into this first venture, and people like the Morani brothers were strong-armed into contributing to the film as well.
Buoyed by the early takings of the film, Rizvi and Shakeel were now discussing the marketing of the film. Talks revolved around details such as the selection of television channels that would air promos of the film and the way in which the soundtrack should be released. Rizvi told his boss that he estimated that the film would net a profit of at least 6 crore rupees and thereafter, no one would refuse to work with him. A content and calm Shakeel went on to tell Rizvi not to worry about people coming to work with him; if push came to shove, the don would create such havoc in the industry that no one would dream of saying no.
To cover their own tracks and keep up a facade of respectability, lastly, Rizvi and Shakeel also discussed putting the names of one of their wives down as producer. This, they reasoned, would keep them out of harm’s way.
Shakeel:
Apni
cassette release
kab hai?
[When is our cassette set to be released?]
Rizvi: 1
November. 7
mein
market
mein aa jaayegi aur
9
ko hamaari
party
ho jaayegi.
[Release is on November 1. It’ll be in stores by November 7 and our party will be held on the 9
th
.]
Shakeel: Opening
woh
cassette
ke gaanon ki kis se kar rahe hain?
[Whom are we getting for the music launch?]
Rizvi:
Is.. Is... Is.... Pehelwaan se. Isise maine
phone
kiya tha. Munasib rahega aur ismein bhi achha
value
hai.
[We’ll get Salman to do it. I’ve spoken to him on the phone. It’ll be appropriate and good value if he does it.]
[
On the topic of promotion.]
Shakeel: SAB TV
hai.
STAR
hai. Yeh na
public
aaj kal
SAB TV, STAR TV
bahut dekh rahe hain.
[There’s SAB TV. There’s STAR. The public these days watches a lot of SAB TV and STAR TV.]
Rizvi: SAB
mein toh shuroo hua na.
[Promotion has already begun on SAB.]
Shakeel: SAB
mein kahaan shuroo hua?
[Where has it already started on SAB?]
Rizvi:
Haan ho gaya.
SAB
waalon ne bola tha ki
programme
mein daalaa gaya. Toh
Monday
se ya aaj se ho gaya shaayad.
[Yes, it’s begun. The SAB people told me that they would introduce our promos in their programmes. So, from Monday onwards, or perhaps they’ve already started from today.]
Shakeel:
Nahi. Nahi. Daala nahi hai.
SAB
mein
Blockbuster
mein aata hai na?
[No. No. They haven’t done anything. On SAB, it should appear on ‘Blockbuster’, right?]
Rizvi:
Haan daalenge. Abhi c
oming week
mein aapka
SAB
mein bhi shuroo ho jaayega.
STAR
mein bhi shuroo ho jaayega.
[Yes, they’ll put it. Now in the coming week, it’ll start on SAB and STAR as well.]
Shakeel:
Nahi nahi. Asal kya hai na
publicity
bhi sabse ahmiyat rakhti hai na.
Publicity
toh bahut zaroori hai kyunki aadmiyon ko samajh mein aata hai. Abhi dekho, doosre
picture SAB
mein aate hain. Sab
channel
mein aate hain. Khaali apna jo hai na
Zee
mein aur
ETS
mein
slowly
bajta hai. Kisko diya
music?
[No no. The reality is that publicity is the most important thing, right? Look, other films are on SAB and they find a way to appear on all channels. Only ours is slowly gathering steam on Zee and ETS. Whom have you given the music to?]
Rizvi: Universal.
Woh
London
ki
company
hai.
[Universal. It’s that company from London.]
Shakeel:
Bewakoof woh
SAB mein
nahi daala? Do-teen
channel
mein daal.
[You fool, why didn’t you put it on SAB? Put it on two or three channels.]
Rizvi:
Nahi. Uska chakkar aur hai, bhai. Apne jo yeh daalte hain na.
Publicity
jab
start
karte hain toh pehle
A-Class channels
mein daalte hain, phir
B,
phir
C.
Toh yeh jo
Sony
aur yeh
Zee
hai na, woh
A
mein aate hain. Purane hain.
[No. There’s another issue with that. When we start the publicity campaign, we first target the A-Class channels, then B, and then C. So this Sony and Zee, they fall under the A category, because they’re old, established channels)
Shakeel:
Achha.
[Okay.]
Rizvi:
Yeh iske baad
second
aata hai
STAR
aur
SAB
ka
number
.
Third
aata hai
ETS
vagera aur jitne
channel
hain.
[After that in the second list are STAR and SAB and then finally are ETC and all the other such channels.]
[
On the topic of rival films.]
Shakeel:
Maine suna hai ki woh Mohabbatein achhi rahi.
[I heard
Mohabbatein
did well.]
Rizvi:
Nahi. Nahi achhi hai. Matlab paone chaar ghante ki. Aap samajh lijiye. Woh kya achhi hogi?
[No, it’s not doing well. I mean it’s three and three-quarter hours long. You can imagine what it’s like. How could it possibly be good?]
Shakeel:
Aur uski?
Mission [
Mission Kashmir
]
ki
? [And what about
Mission Kashmir
?]
Rizvi:
Nahi woh bhi koi khaas nahi hai.
Mission
se thodi behtar hai Mohabbatein.
[
Mohabbatein
is a little better than
Mission Kashmir.
]
Shakeel:
Maine suna Sanju
ki tareef ki hai logon ne.
[I’ve heard people have praised Sanjay Dutt’s work in
Mission Kashmir.
]
Rizvi:
Uski tareef hai. Baaki picture
mein dum nahi hai.
[His work is good. But the rest of the film is poor.]
Shakeel:
Aur Chikna
?
Woh gaandu jaana chahiye. Woh bhadwa.
[And Hrithik? That arse should really get it. That pimp.]
Rizvi:
Woh Chikne
ki to apne dostne hi uski buraai likh di hai Times mein. Hu hu hu.
Fiza
waale ne. Likha kuchh khaas nahi kar paaya.
[Hrithik’s own friend wrote some really bad stuff about him in the
Times
. Hu hu hu. The
Fiza
guy—referring to critic and filmmaker Khalid Mohammed. He wrote that Hrithik wasn’t able to do anything.]
The case was filed under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), one of the most stringent crime enforcement laws ever. When the case came up in the MCOCA court, the police presented thirty-one witnesses and demonstrated how Rizvi was taking instructions from Shakeel and then squealing on people who were uncooperative. So, if Shahrukh was unwilling to speak to Rizvi, the latter would complain to Shakeel. Similarly, when Hrithik—who on seeing the pre-release response to
Chori Chori Chupke Chupke
considered working on Rizvi’s next project—was told by his father not to work with these people from the underworld, Rizvi complained to Shakeel and the don assured his frontman that he would threaten Rakesh in such a way that he would never say or do anything against the underworld’s wishes again.
Rizvi:
Yeh Takla apna. Jodi ke paas kahaani bhi
complete
hai aur
hero
ne toh
final
kiya hai, uske bete ne. Aur usne market mein bolna shuroo kiya hai ki main Rizvi sahab ke liye kaam kar raha hoon, jodi ki next
film
kar raha hoon.
[This Rakesh... Abbas-Mustan have already completed the story and finalised the hero—Rakesh’s son who has already started talking about how he’s working in my project, Abbas-Mustan’s next film.]
Shakeel:
Toh ek kaam karo na.
Monday
ya
Tuesday
site
pe uske chale jaana, Chikne ke. Bolna apne baap ko samjha chutiya, bolna teri
life
kharab ho jaayegi.
[Then do as I tell you. On Monday or Tuesday go to the site where Hrithik is presently filming and tell him to explain to his fucking
father that his life will be ruined if Rakesh keeps interfering.]