Dawood Ibrahim gave expensive gifts to Rishi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar; loved heroines, says Hussain Zaidi: 'He wanted to...'

Noted author and former investigative journalist Hussain Zaidi, who has covered Mumbai mafia for decades, has made shocking revelations. He has stated that the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim gave expensive gifts to Rishi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, and Amjad Khan, and organised dinners for them in Dubai.

Speaking to Pinkvilla, Hussain said, "Dawood didn’t want to earn money from films; he simply loved Hindi cinema. He loved all the heroines. All the film stars who would travel to Dubai, Dawood used to organise dinner for them. For instance, Dilip Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Amjad Khan...These people have even talked about it in their interviews about meeting Dawood. He has also given them expensive gifts. So, he wasn’t interested in Hindi films with the purpose of earning money. He just wanted to hobnob with them and be seen in that company."

The author further shared how people in the industry would flaunt their association with Dawood Ibrahim as he added, "He knew everyone - producers, directors, stars, and actresses. During that time, people spoke about their friendship with Dawood as a thing to be proud of. I won’t name anyone, but they would say things like, ‘I just spoke to bhai on the phone.’ Speaking to Dawood was a thing to be proud about. Because the police didn’t have a strong grip at that time, everyone was in touch with him. They saw nothing wrong in being in touch with him."

Hussain revealed that he even asked Dawood about his influence in Bollywood. He said, "I asked him why he was terrorising the industry, and he told me, 'I love the film industry; they don’t need to be scared of me.’ This trend started with Abu Salem, who would extort money from filmmakers."

The author explained how Dawood used Bollywood to convert his black money into white as he concluded, "He didn’t fund films as a producer, but he would loan the money. At that time, there weren’t many studios, and the industry wasn’t institutionalized. So people would take Dawood’s money and invest it in their films, and in this way, his black money turned white. He would loan them the money, and after the film’s release, they would return it to him as white money."

Hussain Zaidi has written several books on Mumbai mafia including Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia, Mafia Queens of Mumbai: Stories of Women from the Ganglands, and Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts.