As a young man and graduate of Kirti College, Surve was implicated in a murder that he did not commit and was sentenced to imprisonment in Yerwada Jail.

[1] Within just two years of activity, his crew rose to such prominence that the Pathans, who had ruled the underworld for over two decades, sought his help in murdering the Konkani-speaking Kaskar brothers, Dawood and Shabbir, the leaders of their archrival gang, D-Company.

Meanwhile, local law enforcement was preparing operations to reduce persistent mob violence with an onslaught of targeted assassinations.

[2][3] Manohar Arjun Surve was born in 1944 in the village of Ranpar in the Konkan Ratnagiri region, located in the Central Deccan Division of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, British Indian Empire.

In 1969, Surve, Dada and associate Manya Podhkar were all charged in the homicide and gang assault of a man named Dandekar.

[4] While incarcerated at the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune, Surve developed a fierce rivalry with gangster Suhas ("Potya Bhai") Bhatkar.

Surve utilized this opportunity to escape on 14 November 1979 and returned to the streets of Mumbai, having served over nine years of his sentence.

[4] After he returned to Mumbai, Surve formed another outfit and recruited his two trusted lieutenants, Sheikh Munir from Dharavi and Vishnu Patil from Dombivli.

The group, with the addition of Dayanand, Parshuram Katkar, and Kishore Sawant, stole a car near Badal Bijlee Barkha in Mahim and went on to execute a heist of Rs 1.26 lakh near Govandi.

[4] Another famous robbery undertaken by Surve's group included Rs 1.6 lakh from Canara Bank's branch on Sion-Trombay road and Duke and Sons Company at Deonar.

It is believed Mumbai police received a tip from Dawood Ibrahim that Surve would be arriving at a beauty parlour near the Ambedkar College junction there.

The film's main character, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, played by Amitabh Bachchan, was heavily based on Surve.