S. Hussain Zaidi's Blog, page 2

The Story Behind Black Friday | S. Hussain Zaidi

#BlackFriday #HussainZaidi #PenguinRandomHouse



Presented by S. Hussain Zaidi
Created by Shahwaz Mirza

Video link:
https://youtu.be/nJG-bL1gLVs

YouTube:
https://bit.ly/39FG1RM

In Black Friday, India's # 1 crime writer, S. Hussain Zaidi takes us into the heart of the conspiracy which spanned several countries and the massive investigation that ensued.

In March 1993, a series of coordinated bomb blasts ripped through prominent places in Mumbai. Two hundred and fifty seven people were killed. The police were groping in the dark to find the culprits but the discovery of a few abandoned vehicles opened the Pandora's box and uncovered perhaps, the world's largest terrorist conspiracy at that time.

Through his genre defining book, Black Friday, S. Hussain Zaidi takes us through the aftermath of Mumbai bomb blasts and how it changed a city forever.

Don't miss the story behind this book.

Stay tuned for more.

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Adventures in Iraq | S. Hussain Zaidi

S. Hussain Zaidi

Reporting From Iraq
Presented by S. Hussain Zaidi
Created by Shahwaz Mirza

In this video, S. Hussain Zaidi recounts his experiences of reporting from the war fields of Iraq. From surviving a bomb blast to gathering intelligence from a former lieutenant of Saddam's army, Hussain Zaidi reveals some of the darkest secrets which are buried in the deserts of Iraq.

The ruins of Saddam's legacy are hidden deep into the territories of Daesh.

Video: https://youtu.be/z2TJGupGCp4

Follow Hussain Zaidi on Social Media.
Twitter: @Shussainzaidi
Instagram: s.hussainzaidi
Facebook: shussainzaidiofficial
YouTube: HussainZaidiBooks

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#HussainZaidi #SHussainZaidi #ISIS #Iraq

How Sajid-Wajid Outsmarted Mafia

What happens when a mafia boss, sitting in a faraway land, calls a Bollywood musician and demands money? You may think that the musician will cave in to the pressure. But when the musician is none other than the very “Dabangg” Sajid Khan, things can take a very different turn than expected.

In conversation with S. Hussain Zaidi, ace music director Sajid Khan recalls his “exchanges of fear” through two separate incidents where the Mumbai mafia tried to extort money from him but both the situations proved that how the dons were outsmarted by a musician through war of wits.

Link: https://youtu.be/wv0-N-iXCWE
Watch the video to know more!

Dawood's Father | Ibrahim Kaskar

At a young age, Dawood learnt that his father did not bow down to power but he rather made power work for his own benefit.

To know more, watch the video!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVg-n...

The Writers' Room | Vikram Chandra & S. Hussain Zaidi

The Writers’ Room

A joint venture between Grantika, Blue Salt, and Pratilipi.

“Through a series of webinars and contests, we’ll explore various aspects of the writer’s craft such as plot and character building by the masters of the domain, Vikram Chandra and S. Hussain Zaidi

We hope you find the series fun and instructive.”

Live on Sunday, October 4, 2020 at 9 PM – 10 PM IST

Online Event
https://fb.me/e/4Fx62TePV

Follow
https://www.facebook.com/shussainzaid...

Guide into the underworld | Vikram Chandra

I first met S. Hussain Zaidi in the winter of 1997, when I had just begun writing a novel about the Mumbai underworld. I desperately needed help, and was lucky enough to have a sister who knew Hussain through their shared profession of journalism. So I met up with him at the cheerfully-named Bahar restaurant in the Fort area of Mumbai. I asked questions, and Hussain told me stories about greed and corruption, about shooters and their targets, and despite the chill that passed over my skin, I was aware of a rising swell of optimism – this guy was really, really good. I didn’t know that day that S. Hussain Zaidi would become a friend, an extraordinary inside informant about matters relating to crime and punishment, and my guide into the underworld. But that is exactly what happened. Over the next few years, as I wrote my novel, Hussain generously shared with me his vast knowledge, his canny experience, and his host of contacts. I can say with certainty that I would not have been able to write my book without his ever-ready help and advice.
It makes me very happy that Hussain has finished his magnum opus, Dongri To Dubai : Six Decades of The Mumbai Mafia, so that the general reader can now benefit from his expertise. This book does much more than narrate the saga of one man’s rise, it brings alive the entire culture of crime that has grown and formed itself over the last half-century in India. And as much as we like to distance ourselves by pretending that the underworld exists quite literally under us, beneath us, the truth – as Hussain shows – is that we mingle with it every day. The influence of organized crime reaches into the economy, our polity, and everyday life.

Yet, our knowledge of the intentions and operations of the players – on all sides of the law – is mostly a mixture of legend and conjecture. Our histories begin with a few names – Haji Mastaan, Varadarajan, Karim Lala – imbued with dread, and continue with still others – Dawood, Chotta Rajan, Daya Nayak, Vijay Salaskar – haloed with matinee glamour. What we have lacked is a narrative that provides both detail and perspective, that lays out the entire bloody saga of power-mongering, money, and murder. From Dongri to Dubai is that necessary book, and more. It gives us an account that is vast in its scope and yet intimate in its understanding of motive and desire. Hussain moves us from the small gangs of early post-Independence India to the corporatizing consolidations of the eighties and through the sanguine street wars of the nineties; we better comprehend our present, with its abiding undercurrent of terror, if we follow the stranger-than-fiction history that puts an Indian gangster in a safe-house in Karachi, with a daughter married to the son of a national celebrity, and his coffers enriched by the bootleg sales of Mumbai movies to Pakistanis.

Anthropologists like to use the phrase “thick description” to describe an explanation of a behaviour that also includes and explains context, so that the behaviour becomes intelligible to an outsider. For most readers, I think, reading Dongri to Dubai will at first feel like a journey into an alien landscape with a trustworthy, experienced guide; by the end, though, Hussain has made us see, helped us to understand, and we recognize this terrain as our own world, and the bhais and the women we meet become perhaps not quite our brothers and sisters, but human beings like ourselves.

I am grateful for this book. The work that Hussain does is exacting and sometimes dangerous. Reporting about these deadly intrigues and the human beings caught within them is not for the faint of heart; the web stretches from your corner paan-shop to the bleak heights on which the Great Game is played, and there are many casualties. We all profit from Hussain’s intrepid investigations.

- Vikram Chandra

Hussain Zaidi pens new novel ''The Endgame''

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) Crime writer S Hussain Zaidi has come out with a new novel which talks of politics, betrayal and unimaginable terror.
"The Endgame" gives the readers a close-up of complex political machinery at work, including state security, defence services and intelligence agencies like - all building up to an explosive climax, publishers HarperCollins India said.

Zaidi says "The Endgame" explores the challenges that the security of a country faces from within and without at the same time.

It takes the mentor-protege team of Shahwaz Ali Mirza and Vikrant Singh onwards from their earlier mission and places them in a situation where the stakes are even higher than before. Apart from a threat looming over the nation, they must also contend with enemies from within, as well as a conflict between themselves, he says.

"It is, essentially, the story of the human beings behind the uniforms, with all their strengths and flaws, showing how they are required to make sacrifices at a personal level because the job demands it," says the former journalist whose several books have been adapted into Bollywood films.

The story begins three years after Mirza and Singh foiled dreaded terrorist Munafiq''s attempt to leak State secrets from a naval server in Lakshadweep. The intelligence officers now have the task of providing security for a top paramilitary officer, on his way to visit a former prime minister who is in hospital after a car accident.

However, the officer''s convoy is attacked by terrorists. They manage to kill him before being gunned down themselves.

Amidst accusations of intelligence failure and cries for revenge, Mirza and Singh are told to investigate the case. A tip-off from a foreign agent leads the duo to an apartment in Mumbra where the prime suspect is hiding. He, however, manages to escape, but Singh recognises him as the brother of one of his long-time informants.

Just when it looks like things can''t get more difficult, an army officer, who is now engaged to the prime minister''s daughter, gets in touch claiming that there is more to his would-be father-in-law''s accident than meets the eye.

Soon, the entire team from the Lakshadweep operation finds itself getting together for a new mission.

Vishal Bhardwaj has described the book as a "thrilling ride that reads like an action film".

Publisher Diya Kar says Zaidi is in top form.

"The Endgame" is a must-read for all who loved "Mumbai Avengers" and "Eleventh Hour" and also those who relish spy novels and political thrillers, she says.

Zaidi has also authored "Black Friday", "Mafia Queens of Mumbai", "Dongri to Dubai" and "Byculla to Bangkok". He was the associate producer of an HBO documentary, "Terror in Mumbai", based on the 26/11 terror attacks.

PTI ZMN SHD SHD
LinK: https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscro...

‘Three BSF jawans had also fallen prey to the terrorists’ bullets’

Four Mumbai Police personnel and three BSF jawans had also fallen prey to the terrorists’ bullets, while four others were in the hospital with serious injuries.

BENGALURU: It had been three years since Vikrant and Mirza had foiled an attempt by the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, to leak sensitive secrets of the Indianarmed forces. The operation had resulted in the death of one of the most dreaded terrorists in Asia, a character so slippery that no one seemed to know his real name. He became notorious as Munafiq, the Urdu word for two-faced, a sobriquet that Mirza had conferred on him thanks to his ability to appear like an ordinary citizen while spreading terror across the continent.

The success of the operation had earned the entire team accolades from all over the world, and Vikrant and Mirza, after being promoted to senior ranks, were both transferred from the National Investigation Agency to RAW.In fact, Naidu had been the prime minister during the terrorist operation and had had a large role to play in the drama. Munafiq had hijacked a cruise liner in Lakshadweep on which Naidu’s estranged daughter, Vaishali, was holidaying, and tried to use her as leverage to get access codes to the Indian Navy base’s mainframe on Lakshadweep, INS Dweeprakshak. Fortunately, Mirza figured out the plot before Naidu could hand over the access codes. The incident had brought father and daughter closer.Now, Mirza and the closest thing he had to a son were sitting in a suite rented by the state government in a five-star hotel in the Bandra Kurla Complex, which had become the command centre of the team investigating the attack.

‘I didn’t know you were friends,’ Vikrant said.
‘Worked together on a lot of missions back in the day. A lot of our undercover operatives who were rescued from behind enemy lines owe their lives to his brilliant planning and strategy,’ Mirza replied.
Two days had passed since the attack. Somesh Kumar had been confirmed dead half an hour after the dust had settled. The SUV was mangled to a ball and his body, which was hanging together by its sinews, was removed after the vehicle was cut open using blowtorches.

Four Mumbai Police personnel and three BSF jawans had also fallen prey to the terrorists’ bullets, while four others were in the hospital with serious injuries.As Mirza and Vikrant had expected, the investigation had begun as a bureaucratic nightmare, with everyone wanting a piece of the action. The NIA demanded that they spearhead the probe. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad wanted the same. The CIA and MOSSAD wanted to send their own people.

IB and RAW were ever present in the shadows. Mumbai Police, smarting from the loss of face as the attack had happened on their turf, were also lobbying hard to be part of the investigation. There were cries of ‘intelligence failure’ all around. Two hours after the attack, Mirza and Vikrant had had a video conference call with National Security Advisor Pradeep Singh. Extracted from The Endgame by S Hussain Zaidi, with permission from HarperCollins India

The New Indian Express

Link: https://www.newindianexpress.com/citi...

Farhan Akhtar’s Hello Charlie, Dongri to Dubai become first Bollywood films to resume shoot. Watch set video

Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Hello Charlie and Dongri to Dubai became the first Bollywood films to resume shoot. Watch set video.

Amid the relaxation in lockdown, Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment resumed shooting for their next two projects Hello Charlie and Dongri to Dubai, taking all necessary precautions. The production house also completed the shoot of a song for Hello Charlie, making it the first Bollywood film to go on floors along with Dongri to Dubai.

The makers shot with a unit of about 150 members as they executed the schedule in accordance with the guidelines for risk protection against contagion of covid-19 during filming. The days were divided between both- Hello Charlie and Dongri to Dubai and the shoot was completed successfully.

Ritesh Sidhwani posted on social media, “We are back to doing what we love the most - making movies, with the people we love the most- our cast and crew! #MasksDistanceAction @faroutakhtar @excelmovies”

HT Entertainment Desk
Link:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollyw...

Hussain Zaidi pens new novel ''The Endgame''

The Endgame

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) Crime writer S Hussain Zaidi has come out with a new novel which talks of politics, betrayal and unimaginable terror.
"The Endgame" gives the readers a close-up of complex political machinery at work, including state security, defence services and intelligence agencies like - all building up to an explosive climax, publishers HarperCollins India said.

Zaidi says "The Endgame" explores the challenges that the security of a country faces from within and without at the same time.

It takes the mentor-protege team of Shahwaz Ali Mirza and Vikrant Singh onwards from their earlier mission and places them in a situation where the stakes are even higher than before. Apart from a threat looming over the nation, they must also contend with enemies from within, as well as a conflict between themselves, he says.

"It is, essentially, the story of the human beings behind the uniforms, with all their strengths and flaws, showing how they are required to make sacrifices at a personal level because the job demands it," says the former journalist whose several books have been adapted into Bollywood films.

The story begins three years after Mirza and Singh foiled dreaded terrorist Munafiq''s attempt to leak State secrets from a naval server in Lakshadweep. The intelligence officers now have the task of providing security for a top paramilitary officer, on his way to visit a former prime minister who is in hospital after a car accident.

However, the officer''s convoy is attacked by terrorists. They manage to kill him before being gunned down themselves.

Amidst accusations of intelligence failure and cries for revenge, Mirza and Singh are told to investigate the case. A tip-off from a foreign agent leads the duo to an apartment in Mumbra where the prime suspect is hiding. He, however, manages to escape, but Singh recognises him as the brother of one of his long-time informants.

Just when it looks like things can''t get more difficult, an army officer, who is now engaged to the prime minister''s daughter, gets in touch claiming that there is more to his would-be father-in-law''s accident than meets the eye.

Soon, the entire team from the Lakshadweep operation finds itself getting together for a new mission.

Vishal Bhardwaj has described the book as a "thrilling ride that reads like an action film".

Publisher Diya Kar says Zaidi is in top form.

"The Endgame" is a must-read for all who loved "Mumbai Avengers" and "Eleventh Hour" and also those who relish spy novels and political thrillers, she says.

Zaidi has also authored "Black Friday", "Mafia Queens of Mumbai", "Dongri to Dubai" and "Byculla to Bangkok". He was the associate producer of an HBO documentary, "Terror in Mumbai", based on the 26/11 terror attacks. PTI ZMN SHD SHD

Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3bYm0Eh

Link:
https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscro...The Endgame