Mafia don Ravi Pujari is back! Preity 'fan' is now Shah Rukh's worst nightmare

Of the many legends that Bollywood has spawned over the years, the one that never fails to fascinate us is the one about gangsters. Bollywood is so besotted with its troubled relationship with the underworld that it has made innumerable films on the subject. But the stories about real underworld have themselves been mostly treated as tales of a bygone era, the bad old'80s and 90s, with little bearing on the present. That’s until Ravi Pujari landed a resounding punch on Bollywood by deciding to issue a threat against none other than Shah Rukh Khan. According to a report on The Times of India, Pujari sent a SMS to Khan’s close friend and business associate Karim Morani, mentioning Khan in it. Later, to make sure that the message got across, he also called up Shah Rukh Khan’s office to directly issue the threat to him. The Times of India report states that Pujari, who is absconding, wanted to have a show organised abroad for one of his friends. Right in line with what gangsters in the past have done, he demanded Shah Rukh Khan do it for free. He conveyed this to Karin Morani, who has collaborated with Khan on several projects and runs Cineyug, which organises lavish Bollywood shows abroad. Morani told Pujari that he had nothing to do with the shows Khan is organising to promote Farah Khan’s Happy New Year, abroad. Pujari refused to believe him and sent three of his thugs to teach Morani a lesson. They came on a bike, slowed down before Morani’s four-storey Juhu bungalow, and fired three shots which hit a car, a tree and a window in the house. [caption id=“attachment_1683909” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shah Rukh Khan. AFP.[/caption] However, in another version of the story, DNA reports that Pujari called up Red Chillies office and warned Shah Rukh Khan to snap ties with Morani since the latter had links with others rival gangs. DNA quotes Milind Bharambe, addtional commissioner of police west region as saying: ““We received a call from the actor’s office about the threat call. We have enhanced security outside his house, and beefed up security at Morani’s house as well.” So is Pujari ushering in a new era of underworld terrorism in the film industry? He had sparked off such speculations a couple of months back by trying to play knight-in-a-shining armour for Preity Zinta. Shortly after Zinta and Ness Wadia became locked in a public battle over accusations of harassment and abuse, Nusli Wadia complained that he received calls from the ‘underworld’. At first, the Wadia patriarch’s allegations were assumed to be excuses meant to help son Ness dodge the law, but Ravi Pujari later admitted to have made multiple calls to the Wadias. In June this year, India Today managed to speak to Pujari who said that he wanted to talk to Wadia about Zinta - he admitted he is a big fan of the latter. However, he was furious when he didn’t get to speak to him and the Wadias didn’t respond to his calls. He told India Today , " I just left a message, but they did not respond. I gave a message in English… don’t **** around with Preity Zinta or I will **** your business. I did not get a response after two to three calls, so a person like me will respond like this right?” While Ravi Pujari might have never managed to reach the heights/depths of notoriety of Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan and their ilk, his criminal record dates back to the late 80s when the underworld grip on Bollywood was at its strongest. A report on The Hindustan Times traces how he went from being a tea-seller to one of Chhota Rajan’s favourites by killing Bala Zalte a small time gangster in Sahar. Pujari, whose gang was behind the attack on lawyer Majeed Memon in 2005 and assassination of builder Om Prakash Kukreja in the 90s, seems to possess the classic Bollywood obsession that seems to afflict Mumbai gangsters. In 2009, his gang reportedly attacked and ransacked UTV’s office in Bangalore’s Indira Nagar. A Times of India report states that Pujari was ‘upset’ with UTV ownder Ronnie Screwvala, who he suspected of being close to Dawood Ibrahim.  In the past, he had also issued threats in the name of producer Vashu Bhagnani alleging he was close to Ibrahim. According to older media profiles,  Pujari originally hailed from Malpe in Udupi district. He was reportedly involved in petty crimes till his family tried to fix him and sent him to Mumbai to earn an honest living. However, Mid-Day reported that he then got in touch with several others from Mangalore who were running criminal rings and stepped fully into the world of crime.  He successfully branded himself a ‘Hindu don’ and reportedly said that he had attacked Majeed Memon because the latter was defending accused in bomb blast cases related to the 1993 Mumbai blasts. The police has not been able to trace him as yet. On two occasions he spoke to Mid-Day in the past, he claimed to have been in Australia and then Morocco. For the most part, he has laid low and out of sight, until now. With his recent attack on Morani’s office and threat to Shah Rukh Khan, Pujari seems to be yearned for return to the limelight. The question, however, remains whether his histrionics reflect the desperate attempts of a has-been gangster, or signify a new era of terror . Arun Patnaik,who was  joint commissioner of police in 2006, told   Rediff , “Pujari is only trying to gain publicity. He wants to bring back fear in the minds of Bollywood personalities by such acts.” That may well be, but this is one PR stunt that is likely to give SRK many a sleepless night.