Bollywood celebs who were threatened by the underworld

MUMBAI: Although the Bollywood-underworld connection has not been discussed recently, we take a look back at when celebs made shocking revelations of being threatened by the 'bad world'.

Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh Khan has received threats from the underworld several times. Back in 1998, he was approached by producer Nazim Rizvi and Bharat Shah for a film but the actor denied the offer. Rizvi kept on insisting on the Zero actor and also sent don Chhota Shakeel to meet him. Speaking about the encounter, SRK told Times of India, “I was scared and told Shakeel that I would first listen to the story and decide."

He added that he used to receive threatening calls on his mobile from Abu Salem forcing him to work in his movie.

Salman Khan
Rajasthan's gangster Lawrence Bishnoi threatened to kill Salman Khan who was in Jodhpur for the hearing of his blackbuck poaching case. "Salman Khan will be killed here, in Jodhpur then he will come to know about our real identity," Lawrence openly told the media. 

Ram Gopal Varma 
The filmmaker is said to have received death threats from the underworld ahead of the release of his 2013 film Satya 2. The film apparently had a few dialogues taking a dig at don Chhota Rajan, which didn’t go down well with the supporters of the gangster.

“On basis of an intercepted conversation, Mumbai police gave me security… for various reasons, I can’t divulge the contents of the threat. For some important reasons, I cannot comment on whether or not this threat to me is related to the content of Satya 2,” Varma had tweeted in 2013. 

Yash Chopra
Late filmmaker Yash Chopra reportedly received extortion calls from gangster Ravi Pujari after which he wrote a letter to the police. And as a result, security was beefed up outside his home. 

A person claiming to be Ravi Pujari had called up the landline number of the office of Yash Raj Films located in suburban Oshiwara a number of times and demanded huge amount of money from Chopra. The caller threatened that if the protection money was not paid the filmmaker would face "dire consequences", a policeman said.

Credits: Times Now