India’s Gangsters, Dons, Killers & Dacoits – Here’s How Bollywood Immortalised Them In Biopics

Cinema has always been fascinated by real life and takes inspiration from it. On the flip side, real life has been in awe of cinema and often emulates what is seen on the big screen. The life and times of underworld dons, criminals, gangsters and dacoits have been a favourite subject of filmmakers. Audiences have also lapped up stories of people on the other side of the law.  Since Bollywood is always bankable when it comes to adding the necessary emotions and drama to even a hardcore criminal movie, such biopics are a perfect recipe for success.

Here are some of them.

Dayavan (1988) – Varadarajan Mudaliar

Originally from Tamil Nadu, Varadarajan Mudaliar was a gangster and smuggler. He moved to Mumbai in 1945 and started working as a porter there. Initially, he stole dock cargo but soon expanded his criminal activities to extortion, kidnapping, contract killing, illegal gambling, etc. He was like a Robin Hood to people from South India living in Mumbai during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, his popularity among the South Indian slum residents of Mumbai helped create a massive haven for himself in the Dharavi slums and expand his criminal activities easily. He carried out the smuggling business with crime bosses Haji Mastan and Karim Lala, and this infamous trio of mafia leaders soon rose to power. Director Mani Ratnam made an epic drama based on his life in 1987 epic and called it Nayakan, starring Kamal Haasan in the lead role. Later, in 1988, Feroz Khan made the Bollywood remake Dayavan with Vinod Khanna.

Bandit Queen (1994) – Phoolan Devi

Shekhar Kapur’s iconic movie, based on the life of female bandit Phoolan Devi was a super hit. In the movie, Seema Biswas as Phoolan Devi and tells her story which was already covered in the book ‘India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi’ by the author Mala Sen. Phoolan Devi was the victim of child marriage. At the age of 11, she was married to a man named Puttilal Mullah, who was in his 20s. She was continuously exposed to sexual and exploitative abuses. She decides to run away from her husband and join the famous dacoit gang of Vikram Mallah.

Ravan Raaj: A True Story (1995) – Auto Shankar

This Mithun Chakraborty starrer is an action drama inspired by the Tamil blockbuster Pulan Visaranai, which is loosely based on the life of serial killer Auto Shankar. Gowri Shankar, better known as Auto Shankar, was a gangster based in Tamil Nadu, who was active throughout the 1970s and 1980s. An auto driver, he started transporting illegal liquor, and also worked as a pimp and supplied girls in the bungalows of VIPs. During the late 1980s, Shankar rose to power and had connections with the most powerful and influential people. He used to brutally kill and bury all those who tried to go against him, and was often hired for political assassinations. T. Rama Rao’s 1995 film Ravan Raaj: A True Story features Shakti Kapoor as the main antagonist Auto Kesariya, the character inspired by Auto Shankar.

Company (2002) – Dawood Ibrahim / Chhota Rajan

Ram Gopal Varma’s directorial is loosely based on D-Company’s activities and majorly covers the fallout between the gangsters Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. Dawood Ibrahim heads D-Company and is the most wanted criminal since the 1993 Mumbai bombings. Chhota Rajan, the Indian criminal, and gangster, is wanted for a number of criminal cases in his name. Chhota Rajan became the right hand of Dawood Ibrahim during his war with the rival gang of Arun Gawli in the late 1980s. However, the two parted their ways in 1993, after the Mumbai bombings. Thereafter, Chhota Rajan formed his independent gang. The title character of the movie Company (2002), N. Malik (Ajay Devgn) and Chandrakant ‘Chandu’ Nagre (Vivek Oberoi) are inspired by Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan, respectively.

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010) – Haji Mastan

Milan Luthria’s film is loosely based on the lives of Mumbai underworld gangster Haji Mastan, a mafia leader, originally from South India.  He was based in Mumbai and ruled the underworld from the 1960s to the 1980s. He operated a powerful smuggling business and had connections with powerful political leaders and good relations with the police and government officials. Initially, he worked in the docks which made it easy to operate his smuggling business and soon became one of the most influential mafia leaders who had good terms with other gang leaders. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi and Kangana Ranaut.

Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016) – Raman Raghav

Anurag Kashyap’s psychological crime drama is inspired by the real-life killer Raman Raghav, who operated in Mumbai during the 1960s. A series of murders took place in 1965 and 1966, when around 19 people were attacked. Raman Raghav, a homeless man, was suspected to be behind the murders, but the police let him go as no solid evidence was found against him. In 1968, the same pattern of murders took place and during the manhunt, the police caught Raman Raghav red-handed. In his confession, he admitted to having murdered 41 people in 1966 and about dozen in 1968. The intention behind the murders was never clear, however, it was claimed that Raman Raghav was suffering from schizophrenia. Raman’s sentence was reduced from death penalty to life imprisonment due to his incurable mental illness. Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Raman Raghav to perfection in the film.

The list is endless with other movies like Mumbai Saga (2021), based on the real-life encounter of gangster Amar Naik, Raees (2017), based on the life of the criminal Abdul Latif, with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead, Apoorva Lakhia’s 2017 biographical crime drama Haseena Parkar based on the life of Indian gangster and drug kingpin, Dawood Ibrahim’s (played by Siddhanth Kapoor) younger sister Haseena Parkar (played by Shraddha Kapoor), Ram Gopal Verma’s Veerappan based on the real-life bandit Veerappan (played by Sandeep Bharadwaj) and many more. Then, of course, there was also Serpent, based on the life of the recently released bikini killer, Charles Sobhraj.