Haji Mastan
Encyclopedia
Haji Mastan Mirza, popularly known as Haji Mastan or Bawa(March 01, 1926 - 1994), was a Bombay
(Mumbai) gangster
and smuggler in the 1960s and 1970s. Mastan became the first celebrity gangster of the city, expanding his clout in the film industry. As Mastan's influence in Bollywood
grew, he began to produce films. He was also known for his links with the legendary actor Dilip Kumar
. During the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77)
he was imprisoned. In prison he learned Hindi. Haji Mastan became a Muslim leader in 1984. He formed Dalit Muslim Surakhsha Maha Sangh in 1985, Which had Doulatram Kawle as a corporator. Aslam Kiratpuri, a well known journalist, gave him ideas on how to speak in public meetings after which he became a good speaker. He died in Mumbai in 1994.
As he would walk home to his basti (ghetto) from Crawford Market, he would see the grand theatres, Alfred ad Novelty, on south Mumbai’s Grant Road. He would stare at the cars of Mumbai’s rich and famous, their Malabar Hill bungalows, and resolved to be rich and famous.
Soon after independence, smuggling on a big scale was unheard of. There were petty smugglers dabbling in permissible quantities, which back then used to be six watches, two gold biscuits, four Philips transistors, and so on. The Arab told Mastan that being a coolie, it would be easy for him to tuck a couple of biscuits in his headband, stash a few watches in his underwear or a couple of transistors in his jhola. The Arab promised a good reward, and they were in business.
In 1950, Morarji Desai
, chief minister of the then Bombay Presidency
, imposed prohibition on liquor and other items. With such impositions in the state, the mafia of the time saw an opportunity to rake in more profits through smuggling.
and the biggest smuggler in Gujarat. Bakhia and Mastan became partners and divided certain territories among themselves. Mastan handled the Bombay port and Bakhia the Daman port. The smuggled items would come to Daman port from the Persian Gulf
and to Bombay from Aden. Mastan took care of Bakhia’s consignments.
His rise was phenomenal. But Emergency took the wind out of his sails. The smuggler was incarcerated. The man who came out after 18 months in jail was reformed and surprisingly emerged a hero. During his jail term, he studied Hindi, the prominent language in Mumbai. Mastan Mirza began to introduce himself as Haji Mastan. Using the prefix of "Haji" refers to those devout Muslims who have been to Hajj
in Mecca.
Haji Mastan planned his own foray into films with a project titled Mere Garib Nawaz and followed by other movies. He was a successful distributor and excelled in cinema business.
He was a smuggler and a shrewd man who rubbed shoulders with the high and mighty of his era. Be it Karim Lala
or Varadarajan Mudaliar
, Dilip Kumar
or Shashi Kapoor
. He had excellent relationship with Dharmendra
, Feroz Khan
, Raj Kapoor
and Sanjeev Kumar. Salim Khan
and Amitabh Bachchan
often visited him while Deewar was in the pipeline. He also had friends from the world of politics. Though a notorious smuggler he was apprehended and jailed by agencies many time around. Though he possessed a huge mansion in a posh locality off Peddar Road, opposite Sophia College, he virtually lived his life in a small room built on the terrace of his bungalow. He worshipped the sea and had a clear view of the ocean from his terrace abode.
But once out of his home, Haji Mastan was a man of style. Always clad in pure white designer wear, a pack of imported cigarettes in hand, Mastan used to travel in a chauffeur driven white Mercedes-Benz
a status symbol in those days.
His room used to be full of Tamil newspapers, specially flown in from Chennai
as that was the only language that Mastan knew to read.
He made millions through smuggling gold, silver and electronic goods and was once arrested and detained under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (COFEPOSA) Act during Emergency.
After all the cases against him were disposed off, Haji Mastan never indulged in smuggling again. He floated a political party and devoted time in holding periodic meetings with the poor and the needy in the minority community-dominated localities of south Mumbai and held public rallies at Mastan Talao near Nagpada
police station. He also joined hands with anti-drug abuse activists like Dr Yusuf Merchant and implored the youth to stay away from killer drugs.
In the meantime, he courted a few Bollywood
starlets and even tied the knot with a starlet called Sona. He financed a few films for her. He gifted her a bungalow situated near actor Dev Anand
's house at Juhu. He was a lonely man and had few but staunch friends. No wonder that when don Vardabhai (Varadarajan Mudaliar
) died in Madras, Mastan chartered an Indian Airlines plane and brought his friend's body to Mumbai for last rites as was wished by Vardabhai.
In 1994, he died due to cardiac arrest.
that were inspired by his life.
Deewaar - a well recognized film in Hindi crime genre - is based on the life of Haji Mastan. The protagonist in the film, played by Amitabh Bachchan
survives as long as he wears a plate with the number 786, dies at the hands of his honest brother. To give the role authenticity, Amitabh Bachchan reportedly met Haji Mastan to study his mannerisms.
In another movie Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, one of the top three grossing hits for the entire 1970s decade, vivek dumore is also believed to be loosely based on his life.
In the Hindi movie Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, actor Ajay Devgan
is playing a character for which Haji Mastan's life was a point of reference.we
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
(Mumbai) gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
and smuggler in the 1960s and 1970s. Mastan became the first celebrity gangster of the city, expanding his clout in the film industry. As Mastan's influence in Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
grew, he began to produce films. He was also known for his links with the legendary actor Dilip Kumar
Dilip Kumar
Dilip Kumar , is an Indian actor and a former Member of Parliament.He lives in Pali Hill, Bandra in Mumbai, India. He is commonly known as "Tragedy King",and is described as "the ultimate method actor" by Satyajit Ray....
. During the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77)
Indian Emergency (1975 - 77)
The Indian Emergency of 25 June 1975 – 21 March 1977 was a 21-month period, when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree,...
he was imprisoned. In prison he learned Hindi. Haji Mastan became a Muslim leader in 1984. He formed Dalit Muslim Surakhsha Maha Sangh in 1985, Which had Doulatram Kawle as a corporator. Aslam Kiratpuri, a well known journalist, gave him ideas on how to speak in public meetings after which he became a good speaker. He died in Mumbai in 1994.
Early life
Haji Mastan was born Mastan Haider Mirza on March 1, 1926 in Panaikulam village near Ramanadhapuram, Tamil Nadu. His father, Haider Mirza, was a hard-working but impoverished farmer, who came to Mumbai after failing to make ends meet in his village.Father and son reached the city in 1934. After trying their hand at odd jobs, they managed to set up a small shop where they repaired cycles and two-wheelers in Bengali Pura, near Crawford Market. Mastan soon realized that even after all the toil he could only make a meager 5 a day.As he would walk home to his basti (ghetto) from Crawford Market, he would see the grand theatres, Alfred ad Novelty, on south Mumbai’s Grant Road. He would stare at the cars of Mumbai’s rich and famous, their Malabar Hill bungalows, and resolved to be rich and famous.
Coming to Mumbai
Here where Mastan learned the important tricks of the trade. The British levied custom duty on the goods that came in and there was a good margin to be made if this could be evaded. In those days, Philips transistors and imported watches were a rage in Mumbai. Around that time, he met a man named Shaikh Mohammed Al Ghalib, an Arab by descent. Ghalib was looking for someone who was willing to help and support him do exactly the same.Soon after independence, smuggling on a big scale was unheard of. There were petty smugglers dabbling in permissible quantities, which back then used to be six watches, two gold biscuits, four Philips transistors, and so on. The Arab told Mastan that being a coolie, it would be easy for him to tuck a couple of biscuits in his headband, stash a few watches in his underwear or a couple of transistors in his jhola. The Arab promised a good reward, and they were in business.
In 1950, Morarji Desai
Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the fourth Prime Minister of India from 1977–79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress...
, chief minister of the then Bombay Presidency
Bombay Presidency
The Bombay Presidency was a province of British India. It was established in the 17th century as a trading post for the English East India Company, but later grew to encompass much of western and central India, as well as parts of post-partition Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula.At its greatest...
, imposed prohibition on liquor and other items. With such impositions in the state, the mafia of the time saw an opportunity to rake in more profits through smuggling.
Rise as the don of Mumbai
The windfall came in 1956 when Mastan came in contact with Sukur Narayan Bakhia a resident of DamanDaman District, India
Daman district is one of the two districts of the union territory of Daman and Diu on the western coast of India, surrounded by Valsad District of Gujarat state on the north, east and south and the Arabian Sea to the west. The district has an area of , and a population of 113,949 , which increased...
and the biggest smuggler in Gujarat. Bakhia and Mastan became partners and divided certain territories among themselves. Mastan handled the Bombay port and Bakhia the Daman port. The smuggled items would come to Daman port from the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
and to Bombay from Aden. Mastan took care of Bakhia’s consignments.
His rise was phenomenal. But Emergency took the wind out of his sails. The smuggler was incarcerated. The man who came out after 18 months in jail was reformed and surprisingly emerged a hero. During his jail term, he studied Hindi, the prominent language in Mumbai. Mastan Mirza began to introduce himself as Haji Mastan. Using the prefix of "Haji" refers to those devout Muslims who have been to Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
in Mecca.
Haji Mastan planned his own foray into films with a project titled Mere Garib Nawaz and followed by other movies. He was a successful distributor and excelled in cinema business.
He was a smuggler and a shrewd man who rubbed shoulders with the high and mighty of his era. Be it Karim Lala
Karim Lala
Karim Lala , born as Abdul Karim Sher Khan in Kunar province of Afghanistan, was popularly known as the 'don of Mumbai' in India. He is widely recognized as the founder and pioneer of the Indian mafia in the Mumbai area...
or Varadarajan Mudaliar
Varadarajan Mudaliar
Varadarajan Muniswami Mudaliar, also known as Vardhabhai was a Tamil from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, who rose to be a mafia don in Mumbai, India. Most active in the 1970s, he was the link in the underworld history between old time mafia men such as Haji Mastan.Varadarajan started as a porter in...
, Dilip Kumar
Dilip Kumar
Dilip Kumar , is an Indian actor and a former Member of Parliament.He lives in Pali Hill, Bandra in Mumbai, India. He is commonly known as "Tragedy King",and is described as "the ultimate method actor" by Satyajit Ray....
or Shashi Kapoor
Shashi Kapoor
Shashi Kapoor , born Balbir-Raj Prithviraj Kapoor on 18 March 1938 in Calcutta , is an award-winning Indian film actor and film producer. He has also been film director and assistant director in Hindi Films. He is a member of the Kapoor family, a film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema...
. He had excellent relationship with Dharmendra
Dharmendra
Dharmendra Singh Deol |Punjab]]), better known as Dharmendra, is an award-winning Hindi film actor who has appeared in more than 247 Hindi-language films as of 2011. In 1997, he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Hindi cinema and also another Lifetime...
, Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan was an Indian actor, film editor, producer and director in the Hindi film industry...
, Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor
Known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor Rāj Kapūr, 14 December 1924 – 2 June 1988), also known as The Show-Man, was an Indian film actor, producer and director of Hindi cinema. He was the winner of nine Filmfare Awards, while his films Awaara and Boot Polish were nominated for the Palme d'Or at the...
and Sanjeev Kumar. Salim Khan
Salim Khan
Salim Khan is an Indian Scriptwriter and Actor. He wrote numerous screenplays for Bollywood films. He frequently collaborated with writer Javed Akhtar; the duo is credited as Salim-Javed.-Personal life:...
and Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
often visited him while Deewar was in the pipeline. He also had friends from the world of politics. Though a notorious smuggler he was apprehended and jailed by agencies many time around. Though he possessed a huge mansion in a posh locality off Peddar Road, opposite Sophia College, he virtually lived his life in a small room built on the terrace of his bungalow. He worshipped the sea and had a clear view of the ocean from his terrace abode.
But once out of his home, Haji Mastan was a man of style. Always clad in pure white designer wear, a pack of imported cigarettes in hand, Mastan used to travel in a chauffeur driven white Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
a status symbol in those days.
His room used to be full of Tamil newspapers, specially flown in from Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
as that was the only language that Mastan knew to read.
He made millions through smuggling gold, silver and electronic goods and was once arrested and detained under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (COFEPOSA) Act during Emergency.
After all the cases against him were disposed off, Haji Mastan never indulged in smuggling again. He floated a political party and devoted time in holding periodic meetings with the poor and the needy in the minority community-dominated localities of south Mumbai and held public rallies at Mastan Talao near Nagpada
Nagpada
Nagpada is an area in South Mumbai. It is a mostly Muslim inhabited area. Nag is the Marathi word for cobra. A Nag temple still exists at this place. It is Muslim-dominated, so few people visit the temple, but on special occasions, Nag-Panchami people visit the temple. It is a crowded area, and...
police station. He also joined hands with anti-drug abuse activists like Dr Yusuf Merchant and implored the youth to stay away from killer drugs.
In the meantime, he courted a few Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
starlets and even tied the knot with a starlet called Sona. He financed a few films for her. He gifted her a bungalow situated near actor Dev Anand
Dev Anand
Dharam Dev Anand , better known as Dev Anand , is an Indian Hindi Cinema actor, director and film producer. Dev is the second of three brothers who were active in Hindi Cinema. His brothers are Chetan Anand and Vijay Anand. Their sister, Sheel Kanta Kapur, is the mother of renowned Hindi and...
's house at Juhu. He was a lonely man and had few but staunch friends. No wonder that when don Vardabhai (Varadarajan Mudaliar
Varadarajan Mudaliar
Varadarajan Muniswami Mudaliar, also known as Vardhabhai was a Tamil from Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, who rose to be a mafia don in Mumbai, India. Most active in the 1970s, he was the link in the underworld history between old time mafia men such as Haji Mastan.Varadarajan started as a porter in...
) died in Madras, Mastan chartered an Indian Airlines plane and brought his friend's body to Mumbai for last rites as was wished by Vardabhai.
In 1994, he died due to cardiac arrest.
In popular culture
There have been some movies in BollywoodBollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
that were inspired by his life.
Deewaar - a well recognized film in Hindi crime genre - is based on the life of Haji Mastan. The protagonist in the film, played by Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
survives as long as he wears a plate with the number 786, dies at the hands of his honest brother. To give the role authenticity, Amitabh Bachchan reportedly met Haji Mastan to study his mannerisms.
In another movie Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, one of the top three grossing hits for the entire 1970s decade, vivek dumore is also believed to be loosely based on his life.
In the Hindi movie Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, actor Ajay Devgan
Ajay Devgan
Ajay Devgan , born Vishal Veeru Devgan on 2 April 1969, is an Indian film actor, director, and producer.He made his film debut with Phool Aur Kaante in 1991 and received a Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut for his performance in the film and for which he won a Filmfare Best Debut Award...
is playing a character for which Haji Mastan's life was a point of reference.we