Baba Siddique and the big Bollywood connection

New Delhi: He played peacemaker between one-time warring superstars Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan at what was one of the most viral moments of 2013 before the social media rage kicked in and was a protege, even a second son, to cinema veteran Sunil Dutt.

NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, who was shot dead on Saturday night, epitomised the symbiotic relationship between politics and the Hindi film industry.

His grand iftar parties were a starry affair attended by right from the Khans to filmmaker Kabir Khan, celebrity designer Manish Malhotra, and actors Urmila Matondkar, Katrina Kaif, Huma Qureshi, Sonu Sood, Sushant Singh Rajput, Ankita Lokhande, Kiara Advani, R Madhavan, and Aditi Rao Hydari.

Dutt's daughter and Congress leader Priya Dutt said she is "shocked" by Siddique's death.

"Baba was more than a political associate; he was family. To my father, Baba Siddique was like a son, and to me, he was a brother and a dear friend," she wrote in an X post.

Siddique, a popular figure in Bollywood circles who earned praise for supplying life-saving medicines to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, was waylaid by three men at Kher Nagar in Mumbai's Bandra area just outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique's office and shot at on Saturday night.

He was taken to the Lilavati Hospital where he was declared dead.

Siddique, 66, was brought into politics by the late Congress MP Dutt, who represented Mumbai North West for five consecutive terms.

Siddique joined the Indian National Congress (INC) as a teenager back in 1977. Even when he became a part of the Ajit Pawar-led National Congress Party (NCP) in February, he acknowledged the role of Dutt in his political career.

Priya Dutt said Siddique stood "steadfast" by her father throughout his political journey and beyond.

"When I entered politics, he guided me through its ups and downs, offering his unwavering support. His loss feels like the departure of a family member. My heart bleeds for Bhabhi, Zeeshan, and Arshia.

"May God grant them the resilience to bear this immense sorrow. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Farewell, dear brother. #BabaSiddiqui," she wrote on the microblogging site.

It was his connection to Dutt that helped Siddique secure an MLA ticket in 1999 from Bandra West, a seat he retained for three back-to-back terms. Not only politics, former actor Dutt also introduced the political leader to the world of Bollywood.

After the news of Siddique's death broke, Dutt's son, actor Sanjay Dutt was one of the first celebrities to visit the late politician at the Lilavati Hospital where he was declared dead on Saturday night.

Salman and Shilpa Shetty, along with her businessman-husband Raj Kundra, were also photographed reaching the hospital to meet Siddique's family.

It was at Siddique's 2013 iftar party, hosted at a five-star hotel in Mumbai, that Salman and Shah Rukh buried the hatchet.

The two Khans were on unfriendly terms since their spat at Katrina's birthday party in 2008. The feud was so bitter that they avoided each other not only at private parties but also at public events.

There are several videos on the Internet capturing one of the highlights for the fans of the duo hugging it out back in 2013.

The iftar was on when Salman patted Shah Rukh on his shoulder, who was sitting next to his screenwriter-father Salim Khan, to embrace his "Karan-Arjun" co-star, thus ending their infamous rivalry.

A year later, Salman also endorsed Congress' Siddique when he spent an afternoon in Ahmedabad with the then BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on the kite-flying festival of Uttarayan.

"In our constituency Bandra, where it's my responsibility to cast a vote, the best people there are Baba Siddiqui and Priya Dutt. You have to give Modi sahab the vote, I have to give my people the vote," the superstar said.

Matondkar, a Shiv Sena member, said she was "extremely saddened" to learn about Siddique's death.

"May God grant strength to @zeeshan_iyc and his family in this tragic time. Prayers for the soul departed," the former Congress leader said.

"My heart goes out to @zeeshan_iyc and the entire family- May god give them strength to brave this difficult time. The perpetrators of this horrific crime must be brought to justice," actor Riteish Deshmukh wrote on X.

Two of the accused have been arrested -- Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), a resident of Haryana, and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), a native of Uttar Pradesh. Some teams have also been sent out of Maharashtra to nab the third accused who is still at large, police said.

The accused have been booked under relevant Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections, including for murder, as well as provisions of the Arms Act and the Maharashtra Police Act, they said.