Who is Bihar cop Shashi Bhushan Sharma, encounter specialist who inspired Ajay Devgn's legendary movie Gangaajal

Ajay Devgn-starrer movie Gangaajal, which focused on an IPS officer taking down a mafia boss in his town in Bihar, became a cult classic and a superhit film, but do you know that Ajay Devgn’s character is inspired by a real-life cop in Bihar called Shashi Bhushan Sharma?

Bihar police officer Shashi Bhushan Sharma, who is famous in the state for being an “encounter specialist”, was the inspiration behind Gangaajal’s IPS officer Amit Kumar, who is portrayed by Ajay Devgn in the action-crime movie.

Bihar police officer Shashi Bhushan Sharma is a diligent cop who is responsible for taking many dangerous criminals and gangsters off the streets of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with many encounters and arrests to his name.

Who is Bihar cop Shashi Bhushan Sharma?

Shashi Bhushan Sharma is one of the most celebrated cops in Bihar and has won almost all the honours and medals that a police officer can get, receiving the President's Medal for Gallantry four times.

Shashi Bhushan Sharma revealed in an interview that he never wanted to become a police officer, but was looking for a job and by chance got hired. The Bihar cop, in his career, ranging upwards of 20 years, has conducted dozens of encounters and thus has been dubbed the ‘encounter specialist’ of Bihar.

Ajay Devgn’s character IPS Amit Kumar in the movie Gangaajal was loosely based on Sharma, taking inspiration from his ability to hunt down and kill dangerous criminals, and how he cleaned up the streets of Bihar from gang violence.

Gangaajal was also inspired by the 1980 Bhagalpur blindings, where several inmates and accused criminals were blinded, allegedly by police personnel, by pouring acid into their eyes. It is not yet known if Shashi Bhushan Sharma was linked with the case or not.