Dongri To Dubai : Six Decades of The Mumbai Mafia by S. Hussain Zaidi, Vikram Chandra (Foreword)

About The book

Dongri to Dubai is the first ever attempt to chronicle the history of the Mumbai mafia. It is the story of notorious gangsters like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Chhota Rajan, Abu Salem, but above all, it is the story of a young man who went astray despite having a father in the police force.

Dawood Ibrahim was initiated into crime as a pawn in the hands of the Mumbai police and went on to wipe out the competition and eventually became the Mumbai police’s own nemesis.The narrative encompasses several milestones in the history of crime in India, from the rise of the Pathans, formation of the Dawood gang, the first ever supari, mafia’s nefarious role in Bollywood, Dawood’s move to Karachi, and Pakistan’s subsequent alleged role in sheltering one of the most wanted persons in the world.

This story is primarily about how a boy from Dongri became a don in Dubai, and captures his bravado, focus, ambition, and lust for power in a gripping narrative. The meticulously researched book provides an in-depth and comprehensive account of the mafia’s games of supremacy and internecine warfare.

About The Author

S. Hussain Zaidi is one of the most prolific crime writers in India. The investigations into the Mumbai mafia that he has conducted in books such as Dongri to Dubai, Mafia Queens of Mumbai and My Name is Abu Salem are among the finest investigative reporting of all time.

As the Resident Editor of the newspaper The Asian Age, Zaidi began his career in journalism. He then worked for several other publications, including The Indian Express, Mid Day, and Mumbai Mirror. Authors like Misha Glenny in McMafia and Vikram Chandra in Sacred Games drew on his in-depth research into the Mumbai mafia for their works. Adrian Levy, the author of books like The Meadows on Kashmir terrorism and The Siege on 26/11 attacks, consults him on a variety of subjects.

His reporting on the Mumbai mafia has spanned decades. Black Friday, written in 2002, is a book about the 1993 Mumbai bombings, which had 13 explosions and caused 250 deaths. Two years later, in 2004, Anurag Kashyap adapted the book into a film also titled Black Friday. As a result of the controversy surrounding the film, the Indian Censor Board refused to allow its release in India for three years, and the Supreme Court of India eventually allowed its release after a unanimous judgment in the Bombay blasts case delivered by TADA court.

Zaidi conducted an interview with the suspected bombing mastermind Dawood Ibrahim for the book Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia, a history of the Mumbai mafia involving the Mumbai mafia. In 2012, Sanjay Gupta adapted the book into the film Shootout at Wadala.

Phantom, the 2015 film starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif, is based on Zaidi's book Mumbai Avengers, and the screenplay for it was written with Zaidi's assistance.

As an associate producer, he worked on the HBO documentary Terror in Mumbai, which tells the story of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.