Varadarajan Mudaliar Biography 
Varadarajan Mudaliar was an Indian gangster of Tamil Nadu origin. Also known as Vardhabhai, he was one of the most powerful mob bosses in Mumbai along with Haji Mastan and Karim Lala from 1960’s to 1980’s. In the mid-1980s, police officer Y C Pawar targeted Varadarajan and most of his team members were imprisoned or killed. Mudaliar flee to Chennai where he spent his rest life. National award winning movie of Kamal Hassan, Nayagan directed by Mani Ratnam was inspired on the real life of this underworld king. The movie gave National award to its leading actor Kamal Hassan and was most recently listed by Times Magazine as one among the best 100 Indian movies all time. The same movie was remade to Hindi with Vinod Khanna reprising the same role. The movie was titled Dayavan (1988), produced and directed by Feroz Khan.
Varadarajan was born in Vellore of Madras Presidency of British India in 1926. He moved to Mumbai in the early 1960’s and started his work as a porter of VT railway station. He began his crime life by distributing illicit liquor. He joined hands with Haji Mastan, another person of the same kind where they established a smuggling operation at Bombay Port Docks. They started their operation by smuggling dock cargo. Later he entered other areas of crimes like contract killings, narcotics trade and land encroachment.
In the decade of 1970’s, he controlled the criminal operations in east and north central Mumbai. But with 1980’s, DCP Y C Pawar destroyed Varadarajan's mafia organisation and forced him to flee to Chennai. Varadarajan died in Chennai on 2 January 1988 due to a heart attack. Haji Mastan brought his body by flight to Mumbai where his last rites were conducted as per Vardabhai's wishes. Amitabh Bachchan has once admitted in an interview that he followed dialogue delivery and mannerisms of Varadarajan while portraying his National award winning central role of Agneepath.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 17, 2014
