Mumbai: Tiger Shroff escaped an attempt on his life after three motorcycle-borne men opened fire in Mumbai’s Juhu area on Sunday evening.
The Bollywood actor was lucky to emerge unscathed but his driver and another driver of an autorickshaw were injured in the gunfire, police said.
The 36-year-old Tiger, the son of veteran actor Jackie Shroff, made his Bollywood debut with the film ‘Heropanti’ in 2014 and is known for stunts.
Tiger was reportedly leaving a football ground when the attack took place.
A video emerged soon after, in which a man identifying himself as Anil Pandit claimed to be from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. He says Tiger Shroff was on their hit list as “he was not heeding our directions” and “was working with Salman Khan”.
Bishnoi, who is in jail in Gujarat, has repeatedly threatened to kill Salman.
Though Tiger and Salman have not acted together in a full-length feature film, they share several industry connections. Salman reportedly helped pave the way for Tiger’s entry into Bollywood by advising producer Sajid Nadiadwala to launch him. Tiger’s dad Jackie has worked with Salman in a number of major films, and the two have shared stage and frequently expressed mutual admiration for each other’s fitness and dedication to action films.
A voice emerged on social media soon after in which a man can be heard speaking in Hindi:
“I am Anil Pandit. I am like a younger brother to Lawrence Bishnoi. What happened with Tiger Shroff today, we take responsibility for that — Harman Sandhu and myself,” the man says in Hindi.
“Tiger Shroff was counselled, but did not understand us,” he adds.
“In the entire film industry, whoever works without aligning with us, or works with Salman Khan, will be killed. This is the first and last warning,” the man threatens.
He repeats a warning that unless Salman apologises to Lawrence and the animal-loving Bishnoi community — apparently over his alleged involvement in a blackbuck hunting case – “then we will not spare anyone in your family, not even your pet dogs.”