Legal eagle for drug queen

Sanjay Gupta ropes in celebrity advocate Ayaz Khan for his biopic on Mumbai’s notorious drug lord, Baby Patankar

In January, mid-day reported that Sanjay Gupta was bringing to screen the story of Mumbai’s drug queen, Shashikala aka Baby Patankar (She took over what was considered male bastion, January 13). Now, as the team is in the final stages of scripting, the filmmaker is roping in advocate Ayaz Khan — who represented Baby Patankar in the ’90s — as a consultant. “When we take notes from Baby Patankar or her family, it is their perspective and bound to be one-sided. There is a flip side to every story. So while we also get the viewpoint of the police and the narcotics bureau officers of that time, one person who knows both sides is the lawyer. In our case, it is Ayaz Khan,” explains Gupta.

Sanjay Gupta and Ayaz Khan

In the past, Khan has represented celebrities, including Fardeen Khan, Bharti Singh and Haarsh Limbachiyaa. As Gupta explores the journey of Meow Meow queen, as she was known after she allegedly became Maharashtra’s biggest dealer of Meow Meow, the filmmaker wants it to be a balanced narrative. “A woman, who worked as a milk vendor and house-help in the mid ’80s, forayed into the drug business and rose through the ranks to control the narcotics empire of India by the late ’90s. We are getting Ayaz Khan on board as a consultant to ensure that we don’t go wrong with the legalities.” While he had initially envisioned the project as a web series, he has now converted it into a film. 

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