Extortion Threats Push Bollywood Stars to Hire More Guards

Filmmakers and actors in Mumbai are dealing with a new wave of attacks and money demands, reviving comparisons to the organized crime that once controlled the city's film industry. Shooters fired at actor Tiger Shroff earlier this month, injuring his driver. An audio message later claimed responsibility and warned that anyone working in the industry without aligning with the senders, or who works with Salman Khan, would be killed.

Police have not confirmed whether the gang of Lawrence Bishnoi was involved in the Shroff shooting. The attacks have accumulated since 2022, when gunfire struck the apartment of actor Salman Khan and the home of filmmaker Rohit Shetty in Mumbai. The family home of actor Disha Patani in northern India was also hit, and actor Ranveer Singh received an extortion demand of nearly $1.1 million (around €980,000). A cafe owned by comedian Kapil Sharma in Surrey, Canada, has been hit three times.

Bishnoi, 33, grew up in a landowning family in Punjab and was studying in Chandigarh when he entered violent student politics. Journalist Jupinderjit Singh, author of "Gangs of Punjab," said Bishnoi was introduced to the "University of Crime through the jail." Investigators say Bishnoi directs operations from a jail in Gujarat using concealed phones and messaging apps. Canada designated the Bishnoi gang a terrorist entity in September 2025, and last month the FBI placed Satinderjeet Singh, also known as Goldy Brar, on its Ten Most Wanted list with a reward of 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.

The history reaches back to the 1990s, when Mumbai's underworld was deeply involved with the film industry. Crime journalist S. Hussain Zaidi, author of "Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia," said gangsters including Dawood Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Chhota Shakeel were "totally obsessed" with Bollywood. Film investments gave them a legitimate way to make money, he said. Gulshan Kumar, founder of the label T-Series, was shot dead in 1997, and filmmaker Rakesh Roshan was shot and wounded in 2000. D. Sivanandhan, former Police Commissioner of Mumbai, said 101 businessmen were shot dead in 1998 alone, mostly over unpaid extortion demands. A law against organized crime passed in 1999, and security forces seized some 2,500 illegal weapons.

Sivanandhan said the earlier gangs ran smuggling, protection rackets and cricket match-fixing, and that their members were "local boys," while the Bishnoi gang has "nothing to do with Mumbai." He said the gang targets Bollywood because the industry is "loaded with money" and is a "soft underbelly." "They are using Bollywood as an ATM," he said. "Insert a card and collect your money." Singh said that with Dawood Ibrahim and others gone, "there was a vacuum, and Lawrence Bishnoi is trying to exploit that." A security professional who protects several Bollywood stars, and who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said, "The base material of extortion is: create fear."

The 1998 killing of politician Baba Siddique has been linked by police to the Bishnoi gang. The case traces to 1998, when Salman Khan was accused of killing a blackbuck, an antelope revered by Bishnoi's community, and Bishnoi vowed revenge. Zaidi said the recent claims of responsibility are "absolutely illogical and absurd." Zaidi also said, "I won't say resurgence, because that would be a bit of an exaggeration," noting that no gangs other than Bishnoi's are considered active in Mumbai. Sivanandhan said the shootings at walls and gates, followed by quick claims on social media, are "all aimed at collecting… extortion money."

Suresh Shyamlal Gupta, president of the All Indian Cine Workers Association, wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah that if fear of the underworld continues, leading names may be forced to leave Mumbai. Several Bollywood stars have already increased their security.