Gangs of Wasseypur opens with Faheem Khan's assault

Anurag Kashyap uses the 2004 Dhanbad assault on gangster Faheem Khan to open Gangs of Wasseypur. Although the makers remain tight-lipped about it, insiders reveal that Nawazuddin Siddiqui portrays the dreaded gangster...

Back in 2004, the area of Wasseypur in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, made headlines after more than a dozen criminals attacked the house of notorious gangster Faheem Khan and opened fire from their AK 47 rifles. While Faheem escaped by jumping off the roof, his bodyguard Binod and brother-in-law Seraj were caught in the firing.

Seven years later, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has recreated this real-life attack as the opening sequence of his upcoming film, Gangs Of Wasseypur. Although the makers remain tight-lipped about it, insiders reveal that Nawazuddin Siddiqui portrays the dreaded gangster.

Gangs of Wasseypur

“The entire setting and treatment of the opening sequence is similar to the real incident. Anurag has gone all out to make sure that the scene doesn’t look fake and the result has been fantastic,” says a crewmember.

However, it’s not yet clear whether reel-life Faheem dies in the attack or escapes unhurt. The real-life Faheem is still alive and believed to be in jail in Jharkhand. Kashyap describes this five-hour film, the longest-running entry at this year’s Cannes festival, as “a Bollywood-influenced gangster epic, which is part Western and part documentary.”

It follows three generations of coal and scrap-trade mafia gangs in eastern India, obsessed with Hindi cinema. The film stars Piyush Mishra, Manoj Bajpayee, Reema Sen and Tigmanshu Dhulia.