Hussain Zaidi on the Man Behind Underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim

If you’re reading about the underworld, it’s likely that it’s an S. Hussain Zaidi book. With bestsellers like Dongri to Dubai, Mafia Queens of Mumbai and Black Friday, Zaidi has given people a glimpse into the lives of the dons who have ruled Mumbai. Ahead of the release of his new book Dawood’s Mentor, The Quint caught up with the author for a freewheeling chat around the streets of Agripada about Khalid Khan, the man who coached one of India’s most notorious dons – Dawood Ibrahim, Bollywood’s connection with the underworld and what the gangster is up to now.

A lot has been written about Dawood but not much is known about his mentor Khalid Khan.

“Khalid Khan was a mystery. He had retired from underworld in 1992 and he had gone away to Dubai and since then he has not been accessible to anyone. Even I did not know about it. I was under the impression that maybe Khalid Pehalwan has died and was forgotten in the annals of Mumbai market history. But when I heard about him being alive, his people threatening Sanjay Gupta, the famous film director, I realised that he’s still alive and maybe I can make an attempt to talk to him and maybe his story can be told,” said Zaidi.

He went to narrate his first brush with Khalid, which turned out to be rather unsavoury. He said,

“My first meeting with Khalid was not a pleasant one. He did not like it because I carried a laptop. I was a journalist and I was trying to write as and when I could. He saw the laptop and he did not like it. He thought that maybe I was up to some mischief. So, there was no trust factor between us from the first meeting but from the second, third meetings he warmed up and he became very friendly.”

S. Hussain Zaidi, Author

As we walked around Agripada, Zaidi also spoke about his years as a crime reporter and memorable encounters with several gangsters such as Arun Gawli and Chota Rajan.

Camera: Sanjoy Deb
Assistant Camera: Gautam Sharma
Video Editor: Ashish MacCune