When Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) hit the screens, it didn’t just redefine Indian gangster cinema — it rewrote the rulebook.
With its unapologetic portrayal of coal mafia politics, intergenerational blood feuds, and expletive-laced realism, Anurag Kashyap’s magnum opus recalibrated how violence, language, and regional storytelling were approached in Indian filmmaking.
But Wasseypur didn’t emerge from a vacuum. As the cult film celebrates its 13th anniversary, we look at five seminal Indian gangster films that either inspired or anticipated the gritty DNA of Gangs of Wasseypur — a cinematic family tree soaked in sweat, blood, and realism.
1. Satya (1998): The Birth of Mumbai Noir
Before Wasseypur echoed with bullets and abuses, Mumbai’s underbelly roared in Satya. Co-written by Anurag Kashyap and directed by Ram Gopal Varma, this film chronicled the descent of an innocent man into the heart of the city’s crime syndicates. With a stark, documentary-like lens and a refusal to romanticise violence, Satya set the benchmark for gritty realism.
Manoj Bajpayee’s Bhiku Mhatre became the archetype of the unpredictable gangster — a legacy that Kashyap would refine in Wasseypur. If Mumbai noir is a genre, Satya was its Genesis.
2. Shiva (1990): Anger in Motion
While Satya painted an urban crime saga, Shiva was a cinematic rebellion. Ram Gopal Varma’s Hindi remake of his Telugu debut traced the rise of a college student into a reluctant gangster amidst campus politics and institutional rot. With kinetic camerawork, visceral violence, and Ilaiyaraaja’s pulse-pounding score, Shiva made rage cinematic.
The famous cycle-chain sequence and Nagarjuna’s brooding lead performance cemented the film’s cult status. Shiva gave Indian cinema its first taste of stylish, socially-rooted gangsterism — a tone that Wasseypur would channel in its own uniquely earthy way.
3. Company (2002): Global Gangsters, Indian Grit
While Wasseypur stayed rooted in Dhanbad’s coal mafia, Company expanded the crime narrative to a transnational scale. Based loosely on the D-Company underworld empire, the film stripped gangster life of glamour, showing it as a corporate-style power game.
Ajay Devgn’s icy turn as Malik (Dawood) and Vivek Oberoi’s breakout as Chandu offered a masterclass in cold ambition and youthful recklessness. Varma’s detached storytelling style gave Company a documentary texture — mirroring Wasseypur’s own anthropological approach to its characters and context.
4. D-Day (2013): The Spy Thriller Meets the Gangster Saga
Though technically a political thriller, D-Day shares its narrative soul with the gangster genre. Rishi Kapoor’s ‘Goldman’ — a thinly veiled Dawood Ibrahim — is the linchpin of a daring cross-border operation. Yet, the film’s power lies in its emotional core: fractured loyalties, scarred agents, and the invisible costs of state-sanctioned violence.
Like Wasseypur, D-Day confronts the wreckage left in the wake of crime — not just to individuals but entire nations. Its portrayal of moral ambiguity, personal sacrifice, and betrayal make it an unexpected but worthy heir in the gangster canon.
5. Khalnayak (1993): Mainstream’s First Anti-Hero
Long before Faizal Khan became the poster child of conflicted criminals, there was Ballu. Sanjay Dutt’s Ballu in Khalnayak was equal parts terrifying and tragic — a dacoit shaped by abuse, systemic failure, and inner turmoil. The film blurred the lines between villain and victim, tapping into themes that would become central to Wasseypur.
Though draped in Bollywood masala, Khalnayak subverted the hero-villain binary, making way for more nuanced depictions of morality in mainstream Indian cinema.
From the student revolts of Shiva to the coal corridors of Wasseypur, from Satya’s morally grey gang wars to D-Day’s geopolitical stakes — Indian gangster cinema has charted a journey as layered and volatile as its characters. And at 13, Gangs of Wasseypur still towers above, not because it invented the genre, but because it stood on the shoulders of these giants and screamed: “Tumse na ho payega.”
