Dangals of Crime, two-part docuseries on Discovery+, shines a light on the mafia embedded in Indian wrestling

Wrestler Sushil Kumar’s arrest in May 2021, after being on the run for nearly three weeks, sent shock waves through the nation. One of India’s most decorated Olympians and the recipient of a Padma Shri and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, he was now being photographed flanked by policemen, with a towel around his face. Headlines and commentators termed his arrest, on charges of murder, abduction, and criminal conspiracy, as a ‘fall from grace’ and ‘a blow to his legacy.’ There were two things at stake — Kumar’s own image as an Olympian, and the sense of respectability his legendary win had lent to a sport long stereotyped. Kumar’s arrest brought into sharp focus the Chhatrasal wrestling academy — an institution known to produce medal winners. Stories abounded about pehelwanji, as Kumar was known, and how he wielded his power at the academy. It was here that he was allegedly a part of a violent clash that led to the death of a fellow wrestler, Sagar Dhankhar. News reports mention that the incident was filmed too. Kumar and Dhankhar were both students of coach Satpal Singh; not only would Kumar go on to take Singh’s place in the academy, he would also marry his daughter. The headlines about a fall from grace were followed by news investigations about the connection between wrestling and organised crime in India — the “seedy underbelly” of the sport, as it was termed. Kumar’s links to Neeraj Bawana, one of Delhi’s most notorious gangsters, and the presence of anti-social, criminal elements at Chhatrasal, become apparent. This was not a case of a bad apple; it was a symptom of something systemic. The inextricable links between wrestling and organised crime in Delhi-NCR and adjacent regions is the subject of Dangals of Crime, a two-part docuseries. In the course of his research and shoot, director Niyantha Shekar met wrestlers who spoke candidly about not making it in the sport, and becoming involved with criminals “without quite realising it initially."

The aspirational nature of wrestling and the promise of rewards that can be reaped through it has created a vicious cycle — one that begins with the wrestlers’ financial backgrounds, and ends with the involvement of the mafia.

This makes wrestlers — especially those who cannot make it — indebted to their patrons. And thus, a steady supply of muscle power is created. At the akhadas, a high level of discipline is encouraged, and aspirants are cut off from the outside world. They also do not receive the more well-rounded kind of education imparted in schools. This is to ensure unwavering attention and dedication towards the sport, but it inadvertently leads to a tunnel vision. Could this lopsided development through their childhood and teenage years result in a proclivity towards crime? Shekar says the tunnel vision could possibly be a factor, that coaches he met spoke about how the lack of a Plan B contributed to a wrestler’s susceptibility to crime. “Wrestlers who had fallen into crime spoke about how their innocence, naivete, and need for money [sometimes just in order to maintain their daily diet expenses] were aspects that criminals preyed on to pull them towards the dark side,” he added.