Hulu’s latest series places its focus on cuffs, collars and crimes.
Welcome to Chippendalestells the true story of Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the man behind the multi-million empire known for its showcasing of shirtless men who would strip down for their effusive fans.
But the eight-episode series isn’t all striptease and bowties! Banerjee’s legacy is shrouded in greed, scandal and murder as a result of the competition spawned from the strip club’s instantaneous success throughout the early 1980s.
Hulu’s true crime series isn’t the first retelling of the story. In September 2021, Discovery+ releasedCurse of the Chippendales, a series that recounted the harrowing happenings through interviews with former dancers and the original business leads of the murderous saga.
Between the crimes Banerjee committed and what he was charged with, here’s everything to know about the true story behindWelcome to Chippendales.
Who is Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee?
Steve Schapiro/Corbis/Getty; Amazon Prime Video UK/ YouTube
Credited as thefirst all-male stripping troupe to make a businessmainly targeting a female audience, Chippendales boomed throughout the 1980s. Furthermore, it racked up millions of dollars in touring and merchandise sales, in addition to the elaborate, exotic dance nights that were at the club’s core.
Banerjee opened clubs in New York, Dallas and Denver. Plus, touring troupes traveled throughout Europe and the United States. As similar nightclubs opened up, Banerjee grew concerned with competition — ultimately leading to criminal activity in an attempt to destroy any rivalry so that Banerjee remained superior.
Who worked with Steve Banerjee at Chippendales?
Courtesy Read Scott
Besides the cuffed-and-collared hunks hired to perform on stage each night, Banerjee worked alongside others that aided in Chippendales' success. But paired with that success came demise, downfall and deaths.
Nick De Noia, a former television producer and two-time Emmy Award winner known for his work onUnicorn Tales, was one of the main subjects at the center of the scene. Banerjee enlisted De Noia in the early 1980s to help expand the production across the country.
“The partnership between Steve and Nick, you know, became fruitful.And that’s how the clubs took off,” Scott Garriola — a former FBI agent and the investigator on the Chippendales case — told ABC News. “Taking Chippendales on the road eventually turned out to be the most lucrative part of the business.”
De Noia, who also served as the touring troupe’s choreographer, often put his focus on the creative direction and production of the show as a whole — as opposed to Banerjee’s preferred appearance of those dancing in it, according to former club dancer Read Scot (pictured above).
“[Banerjee] pretty much let me know, ‘You are a very good performer, Read.But you are not a looker,” recalled Scot, whoworked closely with Banerjee and De Noia as he moved upin the company since he first auditioned for Chippendales in the early 1980s.
Toward the end of the decade, De Noia and Banerjee eventually dissolved their partnership, and De Noia walked away with the rights to the Chippendales name for touring engagements.
What crimes did Steve Banerjee commit?
NY Daily News Archive via Getty
On April 7, 1987, De Noia was found in his Manhattan office fatally shot in the face, and, according to former creative director Eric Gilbert, “Banerjee was the first person to come to mind” when it came to who might have been behind the killing.
Scot continued to work with Banerjee, but he took a bigger role in a rival all-male burlesque show called Adonis in 1991. One month later, Banerjee puthits out on Scot and two other former Chippendales employees, Michael Fullington (a dancer) and Steve White (a producer who later worked for Adonis).
Scotland Yard officers were waiting with a chilling message: “There is a contract out for your life,” Scot told PEOPLE of what he recalled a detective telling him. “It’s going to be a cyanide injection…[Someone] will get close to you and inject you with a needle.”
What was Steve Banerjee charged with?
On Sept. 2, 1993, Banerjee was arrestedfor “allegedly conspiring to kill former business associates who started a competing operation” and was “indicted for conspiracy to violate the federal murder-for-hire statute,” per United Press International (UPI) reports. He washeld at Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.
Furthermore, “Banerjee was indicted for five countsof causing others to travel in foreign commerce and to use facilities in foreign commerce to further the murder scheme.” This is in addition to being charged in the 1990 and 1991 plots to kill Fullington, White and Scot.
A month after his arrest, an L.A. federal grand jury expanded his charges, indicting Banerjee with racketeering and arson. On July 29, Banerjeepleaded guilty to charges of arson, racketeering and murder-for-hire.
Where is Steve Banerjee now?
As for Scot, he and his wife of 21 years, Carol, run Great Scot Entertainment, an event production company he launched in 2018. He has no plans to take the stage again.
Which other characters inWelcome to Chippendaleswere based on real-life people?
In addition to Nanjiani’s Banerjee andMurray Bartlett’s De Noia, who are the main characters inWelcome to Chippendales, there are several other characters in Hulu’s retelling that are based on real-life people.
“I had no research to go from becausethere’s nothing about this woman. We have one picture of her and that’s it,” the actress toldHidden Remote. “So the only thing I had to work off were the given circumstances of the situation, the real life events.”
source: people.com
