Ahmed Ali (THE TIMES OF INDIA; August 28, 2020)

Mumbai: Forced to shut down his tea stall in Dharavi and return to his hometown in Khed post Coronavirus lockdown, a 34-year-old graduate landed up behind bars for allegedly impersonating as a henchman of convicted gangster Abu Salem and demanding Rs 34 crore from filmmaker-actor Mahesh Manjrekar.

On Thursday, the anti-extortion cell (AEC) of Mumbai Police arrested Milind Tulsankar from his village and booked him under the relevant IPC sections for impersonation, issuing threats and extortion bid. He was produced in court which sent him in police custody till September 2.

Revealing his plan to the cops, Tulsankar said that he knew that he would not get Rs 34 crore, but was hopeful to get a few lakhs that would help his support his family of seven for some time. He also said that he had planned to use hawala channels to receive the extortion money.

Manjrekar, on Wednesday, lodged a complaint with Dadar police that he has been getting threat messages on his phone since a week. “The sender claimed that he was a member of the Abu Salem gang, demanded Rs 34 crore from Manjrekar and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not pay up,” said investigating officer Sachin Kadam of AEC. Salem is currently serving life sentence in Taloja jail after being convicted in the 1993 serial blasts case as well as builder Pradeep Jain murder case.

As it was an extortion case with suspected underworld links, it was transferred to the AEC. The police officers, with the help of a mobile service provider, traced the sender of the messages to Khed and nabbed Tulsankar.

“During interrogation, Tulsankar said he decided to take to crime as he had run out of his savings,” said senior inspector Ajay Sawant. “The accused said that during an online search, he stumbled upon a news report on how Salem would issue extortion threats to his victims in the late 90s. He decided to use the same modus operandi and selected Manjrekar as his victim. He said that he got the filmmaker’s phone number from a web portal that provides criminal and financial background information on candidates contesting elections and sent him four to five threat messages demanding Rs 34 crore.”

Manjrekar, who has directed critically acclaimed films like Vaastav: The Reality, Astitva and Viruddh and even acted in films, had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from North Mumbai on an MNS ticket. He, however, lost to Shiv Sena’s Gajanand Kirtikar.

Varma’s movie will focus only on Dutt’s arrest in connection with the 1993 blasts and for possessing an AK-56 rifle
Vijay Tagore and Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 20, 2018)


Even as Rajkumar Hirani’s biopic on Sanjay Dutt – ‘Sanju’ – continues its record-breaking run at the box-office raking up over Rs 300 crore, maverick director-producer Ram Gopal Varma has begun work on another film on the actor tentatively titled ‘Sanju: The Real Story’.

While Hirani’s film has been a runaway hit, it has been criticised for whitewashing Dutt’s life, choosing to skirt his arrest in connection with the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai for possessing an AK-56 rifle. Sources said Varma’s film will focus only on this part of the 58-yearold actor’s life.

When Mumbai Mirror reached out to Varma on Thursday evening, he confirmed the news with a terse -- “Yes, I am making the film.”

According to a source, RGV, as Ram Gopal Varma is popularly known in the film industry, watched Hirani’s Sanju and loved it for its emotional intensity. He, however, was disappointed that it dealt with the actor’s brush with law in the backdrop of the 1993 blasts only peripherally. “That Dutt was doing drugs, was traumatised by his mother’s battle with cancer [she died just three days before the release of his first film Rocky], had multiple flings, many of them onenight stands, is all well documented,” said the source, adding that what people wanted was background information that only Sanjay would know on the controversy which dogged him for over two decades.

RGV’s film will delve into details like who were the people who threatened Dutt’s family — spurring him to acquire the rifle that got him in trouble — how the firearm was delivered to him, and how it was disposed of.


Ranbir Kapoor in a still from Sanju

After the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Dutt accepted delivery of the rifle at his Bandra home from underworld don Abu Salem and co-accused Riyaz Siddiqui. The weapon was part of a large consignment of arms connected to the conspiracy to attack Mumbai.

In his confession, Dutt stated that he acquired the firearm after he got threat calls making him fear for the safety of his sisters Namrata and Priya.

In April 1993, the actor was arrested under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act but was granted bail by the Supreme Court on May 5. On July 4 the next year, his bail was cancelled and Dutt was rearrested. He was in jail for almost two years till he was granted bail on October 16, 1995.

On July 31, 2007, the actor was cleared of terrorism charges, but the TADA court sentenced him to six years of rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act for illegal possession of weapons. He returned to the Arthur Road Jail and was subsequently shifted to Pune’s Yerwada Central Jail.

Dutt appealed against the sentence and was granted interim bail on August 20 until such time as the TADA court provided him with a copy of its judgement. On October 22, he was back behind the bars only to be granted bail by the Supreme Court on November 27.

Six years later, on March 21, 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the TADA court and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment, 18 months of which he had already served during the trial.

His review petition was rejected by the Supreme Court on May 10 and the court, three days later, turned down appeals filed by two film producers who were seeking more time for the actor so he could complete his under-production films. The following day, Dutt withdrew his mercy plea and surrendered to the Mumbai police on May 16.

“Ramu has been meeting Sanjay’s associates and cops involved with the investigation as part of his research,” the source said, adding it was too early to comment on when the film would roll.

When Mirror asked the filmmaker who would play Sanju after Ranbir Kapoor’s stellar turn in the Hirani biopic, he said: “Details later.”

Varma has directed Dutt in two films. In the filmmaker’s 1997 crime-comedy Daud, Dutt played the affable Nandu, a small-time crook who is hired to deliver a mysterious package to a notorious criminal named Pinky. In the 2012 film Department, Dutt was Inspector Mahadev Bhosale who is asked by his seniors to form a hit squad to take on the Mumbai underworld, when he puts together his team to get the job done.

Richa Shukla (BOMBAY TIMES; April 16, 2017)

Actor brings home his first mare, but has to give the Cannes premiere of the Sarabjit biopic a miss
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 13, 2016)


At the end of almost every interview Randeep Hooda is asked about the current love of his life so now the actor has got himself his first mare, Dream Girl, and points to her when the question crops up. She's a warmblooded, Holsteiner breed, specialist show jumper from Germany and, he admits, that there's a lot of love and physical contact happening between the two. "My dog Candy brought female energy into my home, Dream Girl has brought female energy into my stable. She has a great temperament and is a sweetie pie," he asserts.

You wonder why it took him so long to play the field with a mare and he explains that they are different from stallions because of their cycles. But he's known Dream Girl who belonged to his friend Sanjay Dhanak for a while now and had his heart set on her. But Sanjay was not ready to part with her. Then, one night his show jumping coach, Colonel SH Ahlawat told him that she was up for grabs and Randeep exclaimed, "Done, I want her right now!" And she exchanged hands between friends.

He is quick to point out that he doesn't go for champion horses to win championships but horses with character, breeding and some problem so he can nurture them with love and care. "Ranji has one eye like Maharaja Ranjit Singh after whom he and the Ranji trophy is named, Cupa had a bad hawk or elbow joint in the hind leg and Johnny Walker was hairless and a bag of bones when I got him. Even as a child I brought injured strays home," he recalls. Ranji in fact developed lemonitis and came back from the dead thanks to the efforts of Mumbai-based vetenary surgeon Feroze Khambatta who was treating and even got a mechanical prosthetic leg for Shaktiman but couldn't save the horse. Dream Girl also has a little problem that Feroze is looking into. "I'm always mindful that no horse of mine should be pushed beyond a physical or medical condition in the quest for medals and hopeful that one day Dream Girl will gift him a beautiful foal," he smiles.

Randeep had to give the Cannes premiere of Sarbjit a miss because the doctor advised him against travelling so soon after his appendicitis surgery. "I've been to the fest before, many times," he points out, having just finished some radio interviews for the upcoming biopic. He admits that it was a challenge living the life of a man of whom there are just a couple of photographs before his imprisonment in existence and one from the prison along with a 30-second video when he confessed to being Manjeet Singh Dhillon.

"I started the process of becoming Sarabjit with a photograph of him which his sister Dalbir Kaur used when campaigning for his release at dharnas. I'd already started losing weight so stuffed oranges in my cheeks to make them look fuller. When the trailer came out, there was a hue and cry on the social media about how we had used a picture of the real Sarabjit Singh till my director Omung Kumar pointed out that it was a picture of me as Sarabjit," reveals the actor, talking about the uncanny resemblance between the two.

He has completely won over Dalbir Kaur, Sarabajit's wife Sukhpreet and his daughters, Swapandeep Singh and Poonam. He invited them to the dubbing theatre and showed them three scenes from before Sarabjit went to prison, then refused to show them more. "But those three scenes had them laughing, tearing and rolling on the couch as they brought back many fond memories. Swapandeep pointed out to me that her father who'd been with her till she was two, used to call her Thandu and not Thallu as I was saying," says Randeep who rectified the research error by redubbing those scenes.

Ponam was still in her mother's womb when her father crossed the border, was convicted as a spy and imprisoned. She only got to see him when with her aunt, uncle, mother and sister she met him in jail after 18 years, four days before he was to be hanged. "For me, seeing their reactions was the biggest takeaway from the film. That's what made the starving and effort worth it. Dalbirji told me that when the girls saw me joking about attendance in the Laal Rang trailer, they called me 'naughty papa'," he grins.

Buzz is, Randeep is now playing gangster Abu Salem in another biopic. He is clueless but points out that he heard about Sarbjit first when Dalbir and his daughters said in an interview that Randeep was playing him. "I haven't been approached for another biopic yet, maybe I will learn about it from someone else too," he jokes. Touche!

Nadeem Saifi fled the country after being accused of plotting the Gulshan Kumar murder
Subhash K Jha (DNA; February 22, 2016)


It’s been a long sabbatical from Bollywood for you.
Yes, I do miss being in the thick of things but sometimes, life takes unpredictable turns. You need to remain motivated, stay strong and stay focused and figure out how to climb the mountain again. Immediately after the case, I did more than 30 films in London. I was very happy to know that my fans continued to love me the same way as before and that made me more determined to continue with my music.

There was a time when you and your partner Shravan ruled the Indian charts. How do you look back on that phase of extended superstardom as music directors?
Yes, we have seen the best of times any artist can think of. We will continue to dominate not only the charts in India, but also globally. A good example is the song Dheere Dheere Se, which has been remixed and has 110 million likes.

It all ended suddenly for you with the alleged criminal cases regarding Gulshan Kumar’s murder. Looking back, do you view the traumatic phase as a learning experience?
A bunch of liars is the short and long story of the Gulshan Kumar murder case. Not a single piece of evidence in 19 years, a total mockery of the law and investigation, the police having the so-called accused Abu Salem in their total custody and yet have not been able to charge him of the Gulshan Kumar murder, just goes to prove the bias against me. Even Abu Salem in his narco-analysis test, in the second stage of inhibition, has confirmed my innocence. I think the Indian media should wake up and smell the coffee and force the government to drop the case and make those police officers pay for their fake accusations.

You’ve been forced to live in exile, first in London and now in Dubai. Do you miss India and your family?
This has been a self-imposed exile because I believe that the criminal justice system has a lot to improve back home in India, and the appointment of the judges have to be independent of the politicians and the government. It has to be an independent judiciary, irrespective of one’s political views and religion. Of course, I miss India and my family. You can imagine both my parents are very old, frail and bedridden, and I have missed out on all the khidmat I could have done for my loving parents. But I do call them everyday, and kiss their feet over the phone.

Do you see Ishq Forever as a new beginning for yourself in Bollywood?
I have so many offers that it’s never difficult for me to jump back into the groove. It’s just that I am extremely selective because the standard of the films and film songs are really going down.

How did the recordings happen and where? How did you choose your singers?
The recordings took place in India and Dubai, but the singers were chosen by Zee Music Company and I had no say in it.

Finally, would you like to come back to India? What is your message to the government of India regarding your exiled status?
Yes, of course, I would definitely love to come back to India, as my heart has always been here. My message to the Government of India is that 19 years have passed and justice has been denied. I request the Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi to look into my case as I deserve justice.

Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 21, 2014)

Vivek Oberoi who debuted in Bollywood with a well recieved turn as a small-time thug on the make, Chandu, in Ram Gopal Varma’s Company, is now the top contender to play headline grabbing outlaw Abu Salem.

The biopic will be produced by Kamaal R Khan, popularly known as KRK, who is in talks with the actor for the lead role. A source close to the actor revealed that he has read the script, and liked it as well. “He received the script a few days ago, and read it in one go itself. He’s loved the way Salem’s character has been etched and is likely to give a nod to the film.”

Mirror has also learnt that KRK has approached Sudhir Mishra to direct the film. When contacted, KRK, who said that he was in Dubai, confirmed the news. “It’s too early to comment, I haven’t signed Vivek yet, but I’ve sent him the script to which he replied saying he’s liked it very much. I hope things fall into place.”

And the director? “I’ve spoken to Sudhir Mishra and he’s likely to respond in a week’s time. By the end of the month, we will make an official announcement,” he said.