His early-morning arrival on Friday sent waves of relief in the industry which had for long been at the receiving end of Salem’s freely-aimed threats and bullets.
For Bollywood, it is like waking up from a nightmare. Salem Qayyum Ansari, alias Abu Salem, one of the most whispered names in tinsel town, has finally come in the clutches of the Indian law. The 36-year old don is among the top-five ‘most wanted’ for the March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.
His early-morning arrival on Friday sent waves of relief in the industry which had for long been at the receiving end of Salem’s freely-aimed threats and bullets.
The first victim was producer-director Javed R Siddiqui of Versova, who was killed in June 1994 for refusing to cast a heroine of Salem’s choice. It was the first major Bollywood killing, but was quickly overshadowed by the bigger ones that followed over the next three years.
The most important victim was T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar, who was shot dead outside a temple at Versova in August 1997.
The underworld operatives had allegedly demanded overseas distribution rights of the music cassettes released by the popular brand. Music director Nadeem Saifi, too, was allegedly involved in the killing. He left India for the UK, and hasn’t returned since then. Kumar’s killing sent shockwaves through Bollywood, which had barely recovered from the killing of leading producer Mukesh N Duggal in March 1997, allegedly at the behest of the Chhota Shakeel gang.
Salem’s nod led to an unsuccessful attack on Rajiv Rai, son of veteran producer-director Gulshan Rai, in July 1997. So terrified was Rai by the attack that he fled India, and after an international nomadic existence, stayed put in the UK for nearly five years. Again, the reason was a huge extortion amount running into crores and overseas distribution rights of his superhit movie, Gupt. Earlier, Rai was forced to cast Monica in his Pyar, Ishq, Mohabbat at Salem’s behest.
Salem also targeted Rakesh Roshan, Xavier Marquis, Manmohan Shetty — all of whom survived. Manisha Koirala’s secretary Ajit Dewani and leading builders Om Prakash Kukreja and Pradeep Jain, however, were not that lucky to survive Salem’s wrath.
The dreaded don was also instrumental in organising stage shows in Dubai, the US and Europe which were faithfully attended by top stars who sang and dance to entertain the dons. One such party was attended in the early-90s by Govinda, tapes of which were recently aired by a private TV channel.
Salem had excellent networking abilities in Bollywood. He had scores of informers who would attend Bollywood parties, shootings and gatherings and tip him off on potential targets, get financial details of various movies, star casts, etc. The informers included his ‘eyes and ears’ like camera assistants and attendants, make-up men, spot boys, drivers, canteen boys and junior artistes.
“While his arrest is an achievement for the government, the real test begins now,” said filmamker Ashok Pandit. “There is apprehension in the industry whether the arrest of one don will change anything. There will be others running the show.”
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