Tiger Shroff Was Not the First Target: Salman, Aamir and Amitabh Bachchan Were Recced Before Juhu Firing

The firing at Tiger Shroff's car on October 18 was not the plan — it was the fallback. According to Mumbai Police sources cited across multiple reports this week, the three accused spent the first week of October surveying the residences of Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan, acting on instructions from Anil Pandit, an alleged Lawrence Bishnoi gang operative believed to be operating from the US. Tiger Shroff became the target only after the bigger names proved unreachable.

How the target switched

The sequence, as reported by the Times of India citing police sources, is chilling in its method. The accused — Phool Singh (19), Rehan Ansari (19) and Rithik Mahato (22) — were told to identify potential targets among top actors. NDTV reports the gang's original primary target was Salman Khan; the shooters recced Galaxy Apartments but abandoned the plan after seeing the tight security there.

Attention then shifted to Aamir Khan, whose Bandra residence was surveyed at least three times over nearly a month. But Aamir was frequently away on shoots or indoors for long stretches — and the shooters reportedly did not know he had shifted to South Mumbai. Outlook reports the recce list also included Emraan Hashmi's home, which they could not even locate.

Tiger Shroff entered the picture through social media. Police sources told NDTV the shooters picked him after watching fan reels showing his regular Sunday football sessions at Pushpa Park in Juhu — and, crucially, showing that he moved without police protection. "After checking out areas frequented by this individual, the shooters realised that they would not be able to get to the person," a source said of the earlier targets. "This was when they shifted their target to Tiger Shroff after learning, through reels posted by his fans, that the actor did not have police protection."

The attack and the arrests

On the evening of October 18, at least two men on a motorcycle opened fire at Tiger's car as he left the football ground in Juhu — five to six rounds, according to the Times of India. Tiger escaped with minor injuries; his driver Firdaus and a vlogger were hurt. Police say it was the third attempt — an earlier visit to the ground on October 11 found no Tiger.

The three shooters were arrested the next day in Kota, Rajasthan, while travelling by train. Since then the net has widened to 11 accused: four alleged weapon suppliers picked up in Sonipat, Haryana (including two women), and Pranjal Thakral detained in Indore, from whom police recovered pistols in Surat. All face charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Anil Pandit, who claimed responsibility for the firing, is a wanted accused.

The security fallout

The recce revelations have shaken Mumbai's celebrity security setup. Salman Khan was spotted at Kalina airport this week with a heavy armed contingent, and Deccan Chronicle reports police in bulletproof jackets and patrol vehicles deployed outside Galaxy Apartments. Separately, Amitabh Bachchan's bungalow was named in a bomb threat email sent to a school in BKC — though it remains unclear whether it referred to Jalsa or Prateeksha, and the email's link to the firing case is unestablished.

Meanwhile, the All Stars Football Club has cancelled its Sunday sessions — the very routine that made Tiger trackable. And in a curious footnote, the shooters have told interrogators they never meant to kill Tiger, only to terrify him and "spread fear within the Hindi film industry" — a claim the Crime Branch says needs independent verification. Tiger's own team has warned against fabricated stories and AI-generated videos falsely attributed to the actor.

What this means

The case has exposed an uncomfortable truth about celebrity security in Mumbai: the protection gap between the handful of stars with heavy cover and everyone else. The shooters' own logic — revealed in their statements — was purely tactical: pick the biggest name you can actually reach. That calculus is now forcing a rethink across the industry, from personal security details to something as simple as posting your Sunday football routine on Instagram.