In fact, during the 1990s, Abu Salem was infamous as a dreaded gangster in the Mumbai underworld. After a complaint by a film producer, Abu Salem went after Shahrukh Khan. At that time, Rakesh Maria, a senior officer in Mumbai Police, had received intelligence that Abu Salem wanted to kill Shahrukh Khan.
When Rakesh Maria called Mahesh Bhatt regarding this intel, Mahesh reached Rakesh Maria along with Shahrukh Khan. After this, police protection was provided to Shahrukh Khan. However, till then Shahrukh Khan had not received any threat from the underworld.
Shahrukh Khan was so nervous at that time that once he pushed his wife at an event. Actually, after the event, when a fan took out a pen from his pocket to get Shahrukh’s autograph, Shahrukh thought that he was taking out a weapon. Shahrukh immediately pushed Gauri to save her.
However, Shahrukh did not receive any threat for a long time and he remained busy in his work. During the shooting of the film Dil To Pagal Hai, he got a call from an unknown number. The person asked Shahrukh how he was. Here Shahrukh asked in English who are you speaking, then Abu Salem present on the other end of the phone got angry at him and started abusing.
Shahrukh Khan asked Abu Salem what is your problem sir. So regarding this the gangster said that I am sorry to hear that you do not promote Muslim filmmakers by working with them. I thought you would support the people of your community. The good thing was that at that time Shahrukh was working with Abbas Mastan, Aziz Mirza, Mansoor Khan. When Shahrukh told this to Abu Salem, he said that you are a noble person. Now you don’t need police. I will not kill you.
However, despite Abu Salem’s trust, Shahrukh remained scared and tight security arrangements were made even at his house. At any time, Salem used to call and advise Shahrukh about which film to do or not to do. Once fed up, Shahrukh told him that I don’t tell you whom to shoot. You can shoot me if you want. It is better that you also don’t give me advice on films.
After this entire episode, Chhota Shakeel, who was once considered Dawood’s right hand, also went after Shahrukh. He wanted to cast Shahrukh as the hero in the film in which he had invested money. For this, he sent his henchman named Rizvi to Shahrukh with an offer for shooting, but to avoid him, Shahrukh Khan hid in Rani Mukherjee’s vanity van. Shahrukh remained hidden in the van for more than an hour until Chhota Shakeel’s man went back.
Published at : 18 Oct 2024 09:59 PM (IST)
Tags :
