India, July 13 -- Mumbai is India's financial hub. With an estimated population of 12.5 million, it is home to more billionaires than any other city in Asia. This city is renowned for its Bollywood movies, ambitious spirit, and nonstop hustle.

But beneath this surface of wealth and glamour lies a darker reality, a theme often explored by many Bollywood films, even though the industry itself has long been entangled in the very underworld it depicts. It is the reign of crime lords and extortionists who have built a thriving empire by collecting what is locally known as hafta (a Hindi word that simply means "week"), the regular weekly extortion or protection money demanded from businesses.

In this shadowy network, politicians and administ...