Indian mafia

The term Indian refers to certain criminal organizations found in some of India's major cities. The "Indian Mafia" also refer to powerful families that have criminal aspects to it.
Mumbai underworld
Mumbai's first recorded bank robbery was committed by a man with a fake name, "Anokhelal". He came to Bombay from Delhi after seeing the American movie Highway 301 (1950). He formed a gang of local criminals and committed the robbery after doing two rehearsals at the bank which were not noticed by the staff. The movie was later banned in Bombay. The bank attacked was The Lloyds Bank at Fort in Bombay. Rs 16 lakhs were stolen and the security guard was killed. The police solved the robbery based on information about a Rs 10,000 worth "Chaddar" that was laid at Haji Ali Dargah.
The first of mafia elements, or syndicates, perhaps had their origins in the gambling and bootleg liquor dens set up by a criminal named Karim Lala in the 1940s. There was also a don named Rama Naik who hailed from Byculla a close associate of Bada Rajan and mentor of Arun Gavli. He reigned from 70 to 1987 when he was encountered on the behest of Dawood.Bada Rajan 1970-83. Currently the biggest such underworld leader is Dawood Ibrahim.
In the illegal opium trade, the earliest dated mafia family was the Thane-based (Mumbai) Thanevale gang that was responsible for over 80% of the opium and heroin trafficking in the 1860s according to an article by Harkisondas Thanawala (1965).
Activities
India is a major transit point for heroin coming in from the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent to Europe. India is also the world's largest legal grower of opium, and experts estimate that 5-10% of the legal opium is converted into illegal heroin and 8-10% is consumed in high quantities as concentrated liquid. The pharmaceutical industry is also responsible for a lot of illegal production of illegal mandrax, much of which is smuggled into South Africa. Diamond smuggling via South Africa is also a major criminal activity, and diamonds are also sometimes used to disguise shipments of heroin. Finally, a lot of money laundering takes place in the country, mostly through the use of the traditional hawala system, although India has criminalised money laundering as of 2003.
Bangalore Underworld
Bangalore’s underworld dates back to the late 1960s, when Kodigehalli Mune Gowda became the first underworld don.In the beginning he controlled all of Bangalore, and his basic revenue source was hafta(protection money) from brothels and arrack shops. In the ‘70s, Kotwal Ramachandra and Jayaraj entered the field. Wine shops, massage parlours, game parlours were added to the list. They had political affiliations.The scene changed in the 1980s and ‘90s, when young Turks entered the field like Muthappa Rai, Agni Shridhar in 1990 to 1995 Boot House Kumar or Oil Kumar, Bekkina Kannu Rajendra, Srirampura Kitty, Jedarahalli Krishnappa, Pushpa, Kala Pathar and Ele Naga emerged.
At the same time, the underworld became active, with Abu Shair, Koli Fayaz, Tanvir, Ishtiyak, Sajjad, Nazir, hibbath, Tarakari Khaleel and Chappal Hamid. Bangalore was virtually a battleground, as these operators stretched their businesses to all possible revenue earning sectors.
Indian mafia in popular culture
Crime films revolving around the Indian mafia, particularly the Mumbai underworld, have been common in Indian cinema since the 1950s, evolving into a distinct genre known as Mumbai noir in the late 1990s.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, many of the most well-known classic Bollywood movies were based around themes of fighting criminals and corruption at a time when crime was rising and authorities were powerless. Classic Amitabh Bachchan films depicted the underworld and the protagonists attempting to overcome it, including Prakash Mehra's Zanjeer (1972), Yash Chopra's Deewar (1975), Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Chandra Barot's Don (1978) and Vijay Anand's Ram Balram (1980). In particular, Deewar, which Danny Boyle described as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema”, was a crime film pitting "a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan", portrayed by Bachchan. In Malayalam Abhimanyu, Aaryan directed by priyadarshan and Indrajaalam directed by Thambi kannamthanam depicts story or Munmbai underworld. The Bombay underworld was also depicted in Mira Nair's Academy Award nominated Hindi film ' (1988). The underworld was also depicted in several other National Film Award winning films, including Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Parinda (1989) starring Anil Kapoor, Mukul S. Anand's Agneepath (1990) starring Bachchan, and Sudhir Mishra's Dharavi (1991) also starring Om Puri.
In the late 1990s, Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1998) marked the introduction of a new genre of film making, Mumbai noir, of which he is the acknowledged master. The critical and commercial success of Satya led to an increased emphasis on realism in later Mumbai underworld films. Varma's next Mumbai noir film was Company (2002), based on the D-Company, a real-life criminal organization. Satya and Company both gave "slick, often mesmerizing portrayals of the Mumbai underworld", and displayed realistic "brutality and urban violence." Varma also directed an Indian adaptation of in a Mumbai underworld setting, called Sarkar (2005), and has more recently filmed an original sequel called Sarkar Raj (2008).
Mahesh Manjrekar's Vaastav: The Reality (1999) is another film that depicts the Indian mafia. Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (2004) is based on S. Hussein Zaidi's book of the same name about the 1993 Bombay bombings, which involved the underworld organization, the D-Company. Boyle has cited previous Bollywood portrayals of the Mumbai underworld in Deewar, Satya, Company and Black Friday as direct influences on the film. The Hollywood film Shantaram, based on Gregory David Roberts's , also features the Indian mafia in its storyline. The film is being directed by Mira Nair and stars Johnny Depp in the lead role.
Indian mafia was widely portrayed in 2009 Bollywood's 2009 critically acclaimed film Kaminey.
Bollywood connections
The Indian mafia is notoriously heavily involved in Mumbai's Bollywood film industry, providing films with funding and using them as fronts for other activities. Although in recent times police investigations have forced mobsters to make their activities more subtle, for most of Bollywood's existence stars openly displayed their mafia connections, attending parties with mafia dons and using their help to gain new roles.

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