Thrilling and cinematic life of Deepak Pandit, the badass officer of Mumbai customs, shapes into a book

Reading about the rise of gangsters and police officers has been a quite common phenomenon. What is not, is reading about a badass customs officer take the miscreants to task and simultaneously live a cinematic life filled with colours. Deepak Pandit, Asst. Commissioner of Mumbai customs and now GST, is one such badass official in the department, who has lived a dynamic life, ever since he was born, say the authors of his book, titled WHITE – The man beyond the uniform.

Authors Sheetal Bhan, a TedEx Speaker and writer and Aamir Bengali, an upcoming Hindi Film Industry screenwriter, have taken the initiative of penning Deepak Pandit’s incredible life into a book. On asking Sheetal, Deepak Pandit’s niece, about her emotion behind the book, she expressed, “Arushi Mami (Mrs. Pandit) will forever be the most important mother figure in my life along with being one of my earliest spiritual mentors. After we lost her in 2020, I was devastated. We couldn’t even grieve together as a family. I realised I needed to hold onto her in some way. And writing Dippy Mama’s biographical memoir gave me the space to remember, retell and immortalise the incredible life of not just Arushi Mami and Dippy Mama but also their love story.” Aamir had a different drive. He said, “Ever since I knew Deepak sir, I knew that he is unreal. His acts, the episodes of his life, his stories, they were like a readymade Bollywood film. I was fascinated with them. Also, he somewhere filled the void of security in my life with his strength and love.”

Belonging to a humble Kashmiri Pandit family, Deepak Pandit began as a saree seller in Kashmir and went on to fuel his passion for cricket. Having played at the Ranji Trophy level, Deepak went on to become the selector of the under 16 WC Indian cricket team that defeated Pakistan

at the Lords. Cricketers like Mohammed Kaif and Reetinder Singh Sodhi played anchoring roles in the team. Deepak Pandit then went on to becoming a key official in the Mumbai customs and achieved some daring milestones, as quoted by the authors. From close calls with the underworld to personal relations with Bollywood celebrities, Deepak Pandit has lived a dynamic life. His personal life saw a drastic transformation spiritually after he married the love his life, Arushi Misra, later Arushi Pandit, daughter of former supreme court judge, Justice AP Misra, say the authors.

When asked about their experience as actors in the trailer of the book, the authors expressed their delight of working onscreen. They further added it was a treat working with director Divyansh Pandit, who is also the founder of Wild Buffaloes Entertainment, the production company that created the trailer.

The trailer of the book includes quotes in praise of Deepak Pandit, by legendary Indian cricketers, like Chetan Sharma, Praveen Amre, Maninder Singh and many more along with a couple of senior most officials of the CBIC (Retd), a department under the Ministry of Finance.

“Deepak is a highly resourceful officer with proper knowledge of law and procedure. It is a pleasure to work with an officer like him”

– John Joseph

Special Secretary to Govt of India and Member (Retd) CBIC

“A great fighter who we called a swing master for his huge in swingers and an aggressive cricketer.”

– Chetan Sharma

(Chairman, Selection committee, Indian Cricket Team 
 and Former Indian Cricketer)

“An extraordinary swing bowler with an attitude to be a winner, Deepak troubled quality batsmen with his nagging line and length. He gave me a hard time when I faced him during the Times Shield match.”

– Praveen Amre (Former Indian Cricketer)

The writer’s have mentioned, without disclosing any names that they have begun to receive offers from the hindi Film

industry to buy the rights and make a biopic on Mr Deepak Pandit. “No decision has been taken on the rights for a biopic. We are for now only focusing on saying a story with complete honesty”, says Aamir.

The trailer is out on the YouTube channel of Wild Buffaloes Entertainment.

The book is underway and will hit the stores soon.