Sonu Nigam complains to cops about threatening calls from Chhota Shakeel

The Hindi film industry may be doing its best to clean up its act but the underworld hasn’t stopped casting a looming shadow over Bollywood.

The latest evidence of this is singer Sonu Nigam’s claim that he has been receiving threatening calls from Chhota Shakeel , believed to be Ibrahim’s right-hand man.

Nigam has alleged that Shakeel has demanded that he cancel his contract with an event management company and sign up with one that has the don’s blessings.

If Nigam doesn’t follow Shakeel’s cue, Shakeel has apparently threatened to expose Nigam’s relationship with “a woman of  prominent family in Mumbai”, according to reports.

Last month, Boney Kapoor also lodged a complaint saying he had received threatening calls from the underworld.

To say Bollywood and the underworld have a complicated relationship is putting it mildly. Mafia dons have inspired some fantastic villains and their stories have provided the fodder for an entire generation of Bollywood classics.

In the past, dons have romanced starlets and when films weren’t legally considered an industry, members of the underworld helped out as shadowy financers.

But alongside all this were violent incidents like music mogul Gulshan Kumar’s assassination. It’s said that gangsters like Abu Salem have attempted to kill leading Bollywood figures like Rakesh Roshan, Rajeev Rai and Manmohan Shetty. Sanjay Dutt’s connections with Dawood Ibrahim have landed him in jail.