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Mumbai Police have put 15 teams on the hunt for the gunmen who fired on Bollywood action star Tiger Shroff’s car on Sunday evening, and two film industry bodies have accused the authorities of leaving the industry exposed.
No one had been arrested as of Monday morning.
Police have opened a case against three unidentified men on charges including attempted murder and conspiracy, along with offenses under the Arms Act, local media reported. Crime Branch officers are working alongside local police. Forensic teams gathered spent cartridges at the scene, and investigators are going through CCTV footage, mapping the attackers’ escape and checking whether Shroff’s movements had been tracked ahead of the attack.
The shooting took place around 7 p.m. near Pushpa Park in Mumbai’s western suburb of Juhu, as Shroff drove away from a soccer session. Several reports say the attackers arrived on a motorcycle and fled after firing. Police initially put the number of rounds at three or four. Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister, Eknath Shinde, who visited the family on Sunday night, said five were fired.
Shroff avoided being hit. According to Shinde, the actor’s hands were hurt by gunpowder and flying glass. Reports said his driver, Firdaus, was struck in the left arm by a bullet and is stable, and that an autorickshaw driver named Chauhan was also hurt. The two men were treated at Vile Parle’s Nanavati Hospital. Shroff and his family have not commented publicly.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis phoned the actor. “We are all with you. We will track down the accused soon. Do not worry,” Fadnavis told Shroff, according to local media. He also sought a full report from Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti. Opposition parties have accused his government of failing to keep order in the city.
A social media post purportedly from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang says it carried out the attack and identifies the men behind it as Anil Pandit, a gang member, and Harman Sandhu. In an audio clip shared online, a man calling himself Pandit said Shroff had been singled out for defying the gang and continuing to work with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, and he threatened anyone in the industry who works with the star. Police have not verified either claim, and no motive has been established.
The All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) placed the shooting alongside earlier attacks on film figures, including gunfire outside the homes of Salman Khan and filmmaker Rohit Shetty, the January 2025 knife attack on Saif Ali Khan inside his home and the repeated targeting of comedian Kapil Sharma’s cafe. Police said at the time that Saif Ali Khan was attacked by an intruder during an attempted break-in.
Gangsters want to “terrorize Bollywood personalities and extort money from them,” AICWA president Suresh Shyamlal Gupta said in a statement. “Today it is Tiger Shroff. Who is next?”
The association urged the state to arrest both the shooters and those who sent them, dismantle the extortion network and give film personalities and their families protection. The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) also condemned the attack and called for an investigation that is “thorough, impartial and time-bound.”
The gang’s feud with Salman Khan dates to 1998, when the actor was accused of killing two blackbucks, an antelope the Bishnoi community holds sacred, during the Rajasthan shoot of “Hum Saath Saath Hain.” He was convicted by a trial court in 2018 and has appealed. In April 2024, two men on a motorcycle fired five rounds outside his Galaxy Apartments home in Bandra, and five suspects allegedly tied to the gang are now on trial. Six months later, politician Baba Siddique was shot dead in Bandra, a killing a suspected conspirator attributed to the gang online. In February, gunfire hit Shetty’s Juhu home, and the gang later claimed it.
The 36-year-old’s father is veteran star Jackie Shroff. Shroff broke through with 2014’s “Heropanti” and has since led the “Baaghi” action franchise and starred opposite Hrithik Roshan in Yash Raj Films’ “War.”
