The 55-year-old fugitive from Mumbai, whose real name is Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje, was apprehended yesterday in Bali, Indonesia, after being on the run for decades.
Born into a middle class Marathi family, Chota Rajan took to black marketing of Bollywood film tickets before making his way to crimes like murder, extortion and arms smuggling.
After his mentor Rajan Nair alias Bada Rajan was killed in the 1970s, he took over the gang and earned the name Chota Rajan.
The film saw actor Sanjay Dutt play Raghunath 'Raghu' Namdev Shivalkhar, an innocent man who gets embroiled in the murky world of crime after an accident.
"Vaastav: The Reality" was incidentally produced by Rajan's younger brother, Deepak Nikalje. The movie went on to bag many awards and achieved a cult status after its release.
Chota Rajan became a trusted aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and the duo became a deadly combination in Mumbai's underworld.
However, the serial blasts on March 12, 1993, in which Dawood was one of the conspirators, changed equations between the two. Rajan split with Dawood and started a new phase of what later became fabled rivalry between the two.
Actor Vivek Oberoi starred as Chandrakant 'Chandu' Nagre while actor Ajay Devgn played the role of N Malik, modelled on the crime lords.
"Company" was the second film in the Indian Gangster trilogy, and a sequel to the blockbuster "Satya". The film was followed by the last movie in the trilogy "D", again based on the underworld organisation.