Mumbai, Jan 13 (IANS): The Hindi film industry is the most prolific film industry in the world, and has helped India accumulate a lot of soft power, and also helped in the economic growth of the country. However, not everything was hunky dory back in the day. Mafia and the underworld once cast a dark shadow on Bollywood.
An old video of Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan has surfaced on social media where he can be seen speaking about his brush with the dark side.
He said in the video, “Hindi film industry is the easiest industry to take on right now. We are the largest producers of films in the world. So they (the mafia) would back a film, and say ‘I want you in my film’. They do try to back a film, and try to create a product. They'll have four or five of their guys here and they'll say, ‘Okay Shah Rukh, you have to do this film or X hero you have to do this film or X actress has to do this film’. And, I would ask, ‘Who's the producer?’ they would then say, ‘It's okay, this is the guy we're sending, you talk to him and sign the film’”.
He further mentioned, “So if you are scared for life, then you sign it or if you're ready to take your chances, you say no to it”.
When asked if he was ever threatened, he said, “Oh, yes, I've had it on many occasions. But then either you decide like I had a lot of security for three years with cops”.
Bollywood or the Hindi film industry was officially granted the industry status in 1998. Sushma Swaraj, who served as the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government, and in 1998, gave "industry status" to film production thereby legitimising the film industry making it eligible for loans from financial institutions.
This put an end to unreasonable interest rates and shady sources of money which included assorted businessmen, including builders, jewellers and traders and the underworld. The clout of the underworld since then has exhibited a negative graph on Bollywood with the cash flows from film business forming a huge chunk of state taxes as Bollywood continues to be one of the biggest tax contributors to the Republic of India.