Married to the Mob

The villain in Bombay Dreams , the tinsel-and-tabla musical currently wowing London's West End, is J.R., The Big Boss, a gangster who controls the film industry and whose menacing mantra is: "I'll be watching. I always am."

Abu Salem is a real-life gang lord who has kept similarly close tabs on Bollywood, even as he has amassed one of the longest rap sheets in Indian crime. The don named his sons after his favorite onscreen heroes, and even married a Bombay starlet, Monica Bedi. This summer, Indian reporters say he called to announce that he had helped finance...