Varadarajan Mudaliar - Underworld Leader

Underworld Leader

Varadarajan started as a porter in Mumbai's Victoria Terminus Station in the 1960s. His emergence in the underworld was largely through bootlegging and matka operations. Later, he diversified into contract killings, smuggling, narcotics trade, land encroachment and dock thefts. He ruled the underworld until the mid-80s when he almost ran a parallel judiciary system, dispensing justice within his community. Varadarajan Mudaliar rose to be the major force in Mumbai underworld after the split in Karim Lala gang between the Pathan and Dawood factions. Through the seventies, Karim Lala reigned over South & Central Mumbai and Varadarajan reigned over North Central and East Mumbai while most smuggling and illegal construction financing was managed by Haji Mastan.

Varadarajan was very active in the Dharavi, Matunga, King Circle, Sion and Chunnabhatti areas of Mumbai. He organized the annual Ganesha festival in Matunga. However, after the collapse of the cotton mills in Mumbai in the mid-1980s, their relevance ended.

In the mid-1980s, police officer Y. C. Pawar targeted Varadarajan. By the end of the 1980s, most of Varadarajan's gang members had been imprisoned or eliminated by Pawar, and Varadarajan himself had to flee to Chennai. Varadarajan died in Chennai in 1988, aged 62. In 1987, the Tamil film maker Mani Ratnam made his film Nayagan, loosely based on Varadarajan's life. Actor Kamal Hassan played the lead role. The Hindi movie Dayavan, produced and directed by Feroz Khan was a remake of Nayagan.