Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; February 13, 2014)

Sanjay Gupta’s films are about gangsters, real life incidents and style. We have now learnt that Sanjay is ready to shoot his next film titled Mumbai Saga, which again is based on a real-life gangster of the 80s and the 90s, who changed the skyline of Mumbai. This gangster, being played by John Abraham, will be shown from the age of 22, where he was a vegetable vendor, to the age of 45, when he became a narco smuggler and the ganglord of Mumbai, who ruled the businesses of drugs, arms and real estate. He was responsible for breaking the strong nexus between the mills and the politicians at that time. He, in effect, became the broker for builders and was responsible for buildings being built in place of mills. But he did something so terrible that he had to get his face changed without which he would have been caught. He had turned gangster for the sake of his brother, who he wanted should become a chemical engineer from London. While his brother did become that, ironically, he finally became a gangster himself.

Great actors Anil Kapoor and Manoj Bajpayee return in this Sanjay Gupta film. Interestingly, Anil will be seen playing the leader of the ruling political party then, who was no less than the tiger of Mumbai’s jungle. It’s a no-brainer to guess who that could be.
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Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 13, 2014)

Amitabh Bachchan’s character in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar (2005) and Sarkar Raj (20008) was modelled on the late Bal Thackeray. Now the buzz is that Anil Kapoor’s role in Sanjay Gupta’s ambitious project, Mumbai Saga, has strong shades of Thackeray.
S Hussain Zaidi has penned the story and and Milap Zaveri is writing the dialogues. Milap had written the dialogue of Gupta’s last film Shootout At Wadala too which was based on Zaidi’s book Dongri to Dubai. Interestingly, Prashant Pandey, who crafted Big B's character in Sarkar Raj, has been working on the Mumbai Saga screenplay with Robin Bhatt.
A source close to the development revealed, “Besides Balasaheb, Anil’s character also borrows elements from Vasai-Virar strongman Bhai Thakur and NCP Chief Sharad Pawar. Sanjay is working closely with Hussain and Milap and is providing valuable inputs to build the character.”
When contacted, Gupta said, “It’s too early to talk about the character since the film is still being written. But yes, it is inspired by some real politicians who were instrumental in converting Bombay to Mumbai and changing the city’s landscape.”