Dongri to Dubai:The Book Launch

Here are some snaps of the book launch which happened at Landmark (Pune) on 01/06/2012 1830hrs.

The arrangement made at Landmark which was ready for the launch by 1600 hrs.

The books kept in unison just next to the above arrangement.

The Landmark manager giving a brief introduction of Mr. S. Hussain Zaidi.

Mr. Zaidi starts off by apologising for the delay, well he made it on time but was waiting for Mr. Sanjay Gupta who apparently was stuck in traffic.

Mr. Sanjay Gupta asking Mr. Zaidi to choose a chapter which the former can read out. 
He reads the chapter which inspired him to make Shootout at Wadala.

The prized possession, the first ever autographed copy.

Sanjay Gupta autographs on the following page.




















Amidst the media, well they weren't much aware of the contents of the book, I managed to ask two questions.
Excerpts:

Q. Have you ever thought of writing on the international dons considering the fact that u have mentioned Jouquim (Mexican based don) in the book?

SHZ: I don’t think it’ll be possible as I always wanted to have a lot of details and facts in my books, to get details on international people like to go there, collect, compile is very tough and I don’t want to do a sketchy piece. Its better I stick to my stronghold, my turf, it’s better to do something locally than point out an international don.

SG: I like to point out something, whether u read The Mafia Queens of Mumbai, Black Friday or this (Dongri to Dubai), the fact is that no detail can be challenged, u won’t get any of the details from Wikipedia, he has given me the strength to go and shoot my film in the Congress House and various other localities which I wasn’t even aware of.

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Q. Sir Shootout at Lokhandwala happened in a building and Shootout at Wadala happened on the road, which would be tougher to shoot?

SG: Well the Lokhandwala Shootout happened in a building, it was pretty easy to just hole them up in a flat, we had to create a lot of backstory and not all was factual mainly because we had nothing to rely on. But here Zaidi has made this film far more expansive which begins from 1969 an ends up in 1982, it starts from the time Dawood grew up who tried to form his own gang, the policeman’s hassles, etc.

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