Bollywood finally opens up on its underworld nexus
Abu Salem’s statements have once again dragged a rather reticent Bollywood into the limelight for its alleged links with the underworld.
The film industry has seen many allegations in the past, about filmmakers and actors interacting with the underworld, and now Bollywood has spoken out.
“The reason why this nexus existed was because we didn’t have the stature of an industry and the banks were never ready to finance a film,” filmmaker Anurag Basu told CNN-IBN.
“As a result the producer had to go to underworld to get the finances. You can see the record for the last 4-5 years and there has been no underworld connection in any of the productions,” he said.
Abu Salem’s words have once again sent a shiver down Bollywood’s spine. The gangster’s narco analysis statement has opened a can of worms, putting the bollywood underworld nexus back in the spotlight. And the film industry’s feeling the heat.
Filmmaker Subhash Ghai is the first to react to Salem’s statement that Ghai had paid Rs 25 lakh rupees as extortion money to Anees Ibrahim, brother of underworld don dawood ibrahim.
Next on the gangster’s list of names was Ram Gopal Varma. Salem says that the director famed for his movies on the underworld, was on Anees’s hitlist. The filmmaker has this to say
“The whole Bollywood underworld nexus is exaggerated much more than what it is. I have no idea about Salem’s confessions,” said Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma.
Other famous names have also been tossed around in Salem’s statement—Rakesh Roshan and JP Dutta who Salem said didn’t pay a rupee in extortion money, despite receiving threats from the mob.
Bollywood has always kept silent on instances of funding by the underworld, but filmmakers now maintain that the industry has been trying to make sure that its sources of financing are as transparent and legitimate as possible..
“Today’s corporate world allows us to actually get money from big companies and we know actually the source of their funding” said filmmaker Vivek Vaswani.
Bollywood may hope that extortion calls are just a thing of the past, but sometimes the past can be little too close for comfort.
Source: www.ibnlive.com
Interesting indeed! Also, isn’t it odd that Ramu should say that the whole Bollywood-Underworld nexus is exaggerated much more than what it is when he has always shown it in his own movies.
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