Mona & Sona in Bollywood

Scrooge McDuck, in Duck Tales, was known for his love of swimming in gold in his money bin. Indian villains didn’t quite get there, but made their love for gold obvious in movie after movie. Gold smuggling caught the imagination of Bollywood in the ’70s, when almost every villain was a smuggler transporting truckloads of sone ke biscuits while trying to shake some honest inspector off their trail. Nobody knew where so much of gold came from, but every smuggler would have an underground vault with shelves full of gold biscuits and jewellery. The audience would be given a glimpse of that when the hero would visit the villain’s den, pretending to be the man the villain could trust, only to hand over evidence to the police later. Gold heists, smuggling have been one of the most popular subplots in the ’70s and ’80s, with actors like Ajit Khan and Jeevan being the most prominent smugglers onscreen. We’ve even had Amitabh Bachchan deal in gold in two movies, and Dev Anand has played the charming chor in a film. More recently, Ajay Devgn played a role inspired by Mumbai mobster Haji Mastan in 'Once Upon A Time In Mumbai'– smuggling gold biscuits from the docks was allegedly one of the illegal activities of Mastan. And then we had Players, the Indian remake of The Italian Job, in which a group of thieves plan to steal gold worth $100 billion from a train. Here’s looking at some of the gold chasers in Bollywood.

With his tailored suits, black-rimmed spectacles and a cigar hanging from his mouth, Ajit has been the glamorous gold smuggler on 70mm throughout the ’70s. He hit gold with his poker-faced villainy and dialogue delivery with a nasal drawl

Gold smuggling was one of the reasons 11 mulk ki police were looking for Don. In his introductory scene, Amitabh is seen delivering a briefcase which is supposed to be full of gold, but has bombs instead

This legendary tale about gold lust got an Indo-Russian spin in 1980. Dharmendra played Ali Baba, with Hema Malini essaying the charming and clever Marjeena who together kill the 40 dacoits who work for Abu Hassan, pretending to be the ruler Khazi. It is gold that leads to Ali Baba’s brother Qasim’s doom, and eventually the dacoit-cum-ruler’s, too.

In 'Jewel Thief', Dev Anand plays the son of a top cop who looks like a notorious jewel thief and uses the resemblance to help the police nab the real thief

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