Bollywood on edge as gang attacks revive memories of 1990s underworld

An audio message claiming responsibility for the shooting that targeted Indian actor Tiger Shroff in Mumbai earlier this month carried a warning for the whole film industry: "In the entire film industry, whoever works without aligning with us, or works with Salman Khan, will be killed." The gunfire injured Shroff's driver.

The presumed attackers said they were connected to Lawrence Bishnoi, a student politician turned gangster who has been in prison since 2014, though police have not confirmed the gang's involvement. The shooting was the latest in a string of attacks on Bollywood figures since 2022. Gunmen have fired at Salman Khan's apartment and filmmaker Rohit Shetty's home in Mumbai, and at actor Disha Patani's family home in northern India. Actor Ranveer Singh reportedly faced an extortion demand of nearly $1.1 million (about €980,000), and a cafe owned by comedian Kapil Sharma in Surrey, Canada, has been hit three times.

For an industry that once lived in the shadow of organized crime, the attacks have revived old fears. In the 1990s, Mumbai's underworld was deeply entangled with the Hindi film industry. "The mafia was always fascinated with the movie industry," said S. Hussain Zaidi, crime journalist and author of "Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia." He said gangsters such as Dawood Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Chhota Shakeel invested in films to launder profits and gain a legitimate way of making money.

Producers who refused to cooperate could pay with their lives. In 1997, music mogul Gulshan Kumar, founder of the T-Series label, was shot dead, and in 2000 filmmaker Rakesh Roshan was shot and wounded. D. Sivanandhan, Mumbai's former police commissioner, said 101 businessmen were shot dead in 1998 alone, mostly over unpaid extortion demands. A tough organized crime law passed in 1999, which he calls the "ultimate weapon," helped break the gangs' grip through electronic surveillance, preventive detention and the seizure of some 2,500 illegal weapons.

The man believed to be behind the latest wave of attacks is not from Mumbai. Bishnoi, 33, comes from a landowning family in the northern state of Punjab and was drawn into violent student politics while studying in Chandigarh. "He was introduced to the University of Crime through the jail," said journalist Jupinderjit Singh, author of "Gangs of Punjab." Investigators say Bishnoi still directs operations from prison using concealed phones and messaging apps. He is held in a jail in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state.

His network reaches beyond India. In September 2025, Canada designated the Bishnoi gang a terrorist entity, and in September this year the FBI added Satinderjeet Singh, popularly known as Goldy Brar, to its Ten Most Wanted list, offering up to $1 million for information leading to his arrest. US prosecutors described him as the alleged leader of Bishnoi's group in North America. Singh said the gang recruits mostly poor young men online, pulled in by "the lore attached to Lawrence Bishnoi." "They offer money, protection, weapons," he explained.

For Bishnoi, the campaign appears partly personal. In 1998, Salman Khan was accused of killing a blackbuck, an antelope revered by Bishnoi's community, and Bishnoi vowed revenge. Many of the attacks have targeted people close to the actor, including the 2024 killing of politician Baba Siddique, which police have linked to the gang. Singh described the feud as Bishnoi's "chance to redeem himself," but said money matters too. "With Dawood Ibrahim and his counterparts away, there was a vacuum, and Lawrence Bishnoi is trying to exploit that," he said.

Sivanandhan said the old Mumbai gangs ran a broad "basket" of illegal businesses and were staffed by "local boys," while the Bishnoi gang has "nothing to do with Mumbai." It targets Bollywood, he said, because the industry is "loaded with money" and a "soft underbelly." "They are using Bollywood as an ATM," he said. "Insert a card and collect your money." Zaidi sees the violence differently, calling it "a way to grab headlines," while a security professional who protects several Bollywood stars, speaking anonymously, noted that creating fear is the base material of extortion.

Whether this amounts to a true resurgence is disputed. "I won't say resurgence, because that would be a bit of an exaggeration," Zaidi said, noting that other gangs are no longer considered active in Mumbai and that digital payments have made large cash transactions hard to hide. Sivanandhan disagreed, arguing the shootings and quick claims on social media are all aimed at collecting extortion money. The fear, at any rate, is real. "Mumbai will not be allowed to go back to the underworld days of the 1990s, and Bollywood will not be allowed to work in the shadow of fear," Suresh Shyamlal Gupta, president of the All Indian Cine Workers Association, wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah. Several Bollywood stars have already stepped up their security.