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Exclusive: Farhan Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani to make web series on 'Dongri to Dubai' crime bestseller

After producing last year’s successful web show Mirzapur, the Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani production house Excel Entertainment continues to create content for the digital platform. Peepingmoon.com has learned that their next web show will also be a crime story which they plan to mount on a grand level.

According to sources, Excel is adapting investigative journalist and author S. Hussain Zaidi’s 2012 book Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia which traces the evolution of the Mumbai gangland from a group of thugs and smugglers to the present day underworld dons of organized crime. The makers are apparently planning to adapt the 63 chapters of the book into a three-season web show with each season having 10 episodes.

Recommended Read: We’e working on second season of Mirzapur: Farhan Akhtar

The web show which is currently being scripted by a team of well-known writers will show the whole history of Mumbai’s underworld, the source said, adding, “Casting has already begun and the makers plan to start shooting for the first season some time in March. Just like Mirzapur, it will also have some big names headlining the cast with 200 actors hired for small parts.”

[caption id="attachment_195253" align="aligncenter" width="577"] File photo of Dawood Ibrahim[/caption] [caption id="attachment_195254" align="aligncenter" width="568"] File Photo of Abu Salem[/caption]

Dongri To Dubai is said to be the first attempt to chronicle the history of the Mumbai mafia. “The book contains the stories of notorious gangsters like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Chhota Rajan, Abu Salem and primarily Dawood Ibrahim from 1947 to 2011. The narrative encompasses several milestones in the history of crime in Mumbai. From the rise of the Pathans, the formation of the Dawood gang, the first ever supari given for murder, the mafia's nefarious role in Bollywood, Dawood’s move to Karachi and Pakistan’s alleged role in sheltering one of the most wanted persons in the world,” reads the Wikipedia page of the book. Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta made Shootout At Wadala by adapting one chapter of the book.

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