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God's
Advocate
With
delay built into the court battles being fought over the ownership of
Ayodhya's famous site, the VHP turns on the heat.
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From The Editor In Chief
If there
is one phenomenon India never seems to tire of, it is crime. People have
a macabre fascination for the underworld, and more so when it is linked
to that great Indian addiction-films. Last week, it was not merely superstar
Hrithik Roshan's marriage which captured the popular imagination. People
were shocked by the revelation that the underworld was gunning for him.
This followed the suggestion that mainline film producers in Mumbai are
now being bankrolled by the underworld. The whole scenario is frightening.
From drugs, smuggling and real estate, the underworld first moved to terrorism
in the early 1990s. Now, it has shifted its gaze to films. This partly
stems from shrinking opportunities elsewhere but more out of a realisation
that the returns from films outweigh the dividends from extortion. The
risks are less too.
The process
started in 1997 when the dons coerced producers to part with the overseas
music rights of films. Now they are no longer content with the crumbs-they
seek control of the whole industry, including the stars. Threats have
been used to secure dates from stars and mainline producers have been
"persuaded" to accept dubious funding. The presence of the D-Company
was always whispered in Bollywood. Now, his proteges and rivals have become
more brazen. It almost seems a replay of some mafia thriller set in the
America of the 1950s and '60s.
India Today
has consistently monitored developments in the underworld. Since 1993,
there have been eight cover stories on the dons and their activities.
For this story, Special Correspondent Sheela Raval-who reported the Chhota
Rajan shootout from Bangkok two months ago-spoke to Chhota Shakeel, the
man said to be behind the new celluloid thrust. "The dons are garrulous
and accessible," she says. Understandably, that openness isn't in
evidence in a fear-struck Bollywood.
(Aroon
Purie)
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COLUMNS |
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Forget
endology, writes INDIA TODAY Senior Editor S. Prasannarajan. Celebrate
2001, celebrate the future in
Locomotif.
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DESPATCHES |
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The
80th birthday do of a social reformer shows how the lives of entire communites
in coastal Gujarat have changed for the better. INDIA TODAY Principal
Correspondent Uday Mahurkar reports in Despatches.
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