B-town's curious obsession with Dawood Ibrahim

In the popular Hindi film imagination, all underworld roads still lead to a fugitive gangster with trademark glares and a signature moustache, writes Roshmila Bhattacharya

What’s common between ‘Dhurandhar 2’ and ‘Matka King’? The D-connection! Danish Iqbal’s Bade Sahab in Aditya Dhar’s film, the elderly puppet master of Karachi’s drug mafia overseeing terror operations against India from his bed, is obviously modelled on an ailing Dawood Ibrahim. Vineet Kumar Singh’s Darab, a rising underworld figure in ‘Matka King’ (Amazon Prime Video), set in 1960s Mumbai, is the don from his younger days.

Over the years, the gangster with his trademark glares and signature moustache has inspired several characters, from Vijay Maurya and Siddhanth Kapoor’s Dawood Ibrahim in ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Haseena Parker’ to Emraan Hashmi and Akshay Kumar’s Shoaib Khan in ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai’ and its sequel. Rishi Kapoor’s Iqbal Seth aka Goldman in ‘D-Day’, Ajay Devgn’s Mallik in ‘Company’, Sonu Sood’s Dilawar Imtiaz Haskar in ‘Shootout at Wadala’, Randeep Hooda’s Deshu in ‘D’, Gautam Joglekar’s Masood Abraham Katkar in ‘An Action Hero’ and Avinash Tiwary’s Jalaluddin ‘Jalal’ Shah in ‘O’ Romeo’ are some of the other avatars and caricatures.

Hussain Zaidi, whose 2012 book, ‘Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia’, has been the muse, mostly uncredited, for many of these characters, attributes the fixation to Dawood’s fascinating story. The son of an honest cop, he grew up with 10 siblings in a Dongri chawl, moved to Dubai, rose to staggering heights, and over the past decade, has allegedly been holding sway in Pakistan and the Gulf countries, with clout and connections in India too. It’s a rags-to-riches story filmmakers want to exploit, though not many succeed, says the investigative journalist-turned- bestselling author.

“Bollywood is starved of good content and a strong antagonist. Being creatively bankrupt, it can’t develop original characters easily, so it can’t see beyond Dawood and the syndicate,” points out Zaidi.

The fugitive gangster has been associated with many crimes, including the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, which are clearly etched on D-Day’s writer-director Nikkhil Advani’s mind. “I was studying in St Xavier’s College then and remember going late at night to see the bombed passport office where I might have once stood in queue, now an empty shell full of glass and concrete,” he reminisces, adding that since then, Dawood Ibrahim has become a name Mumbaikars instantly recognise. “Bachcha bachcha yeh naam janta hain (Every child knows the name), so it’s fairly effective to pin him down as India’s Most Wanted.”

Advani admits he became obsessed with finding out everything about Dawood — the myth and reality surrounding him — but never thought he would one day make a film with him as one of the central characters. Goldman remains one of Rishi Kapoor’s most memorable performances and Zaidi’s favourite, along with Vijay Maurya’s Dawood in ‘Black Friday’.

Sonu Sood as Dilawar in ‘Shootout at Wadala’ is also unforgettable, and he admits it was exciting to play the character, having read so much about Dawood and grown up watching different actors play him. “We created the ’70s and ’80s world, with sets, props and costumes. People still talk about Dilawar, and I hope I did justice to him,” says Sood. 

“Seemingly, even now, all roads lead to Dawood,” Advani quips. Zaidi believes B-town’s D-fixation will continue till Dawood is alive, and a decade after his death.

“Till they find a new don,” he says, pointing to Lawrence Bishnoi, a constable’s son with an equally fascinating story that traverses India to Canada, from Delhi’s Tihar Jail to Gujarat’s Sabarmati Central Jail. “Bishnoi has been targeting politicians, threatening film stars and killing singers. There are 84 criminal cases against him across India. Canadian authorities have linked him to the pro-Khalistan movement, which he has denied, describing himself as a “patriot” while claiming responsibility for several assassinations. Bollywood’s already hooked!”