Welcome To Chippendales: The grim true story of murder for hire behind the rise of the male-stripping cultural phenomenon

In 1979, a former caretaker who had moved from Bombay to Los Angeles in pursuit of the American dream became the unlikely founder of a male stripping empire.

The Chippendales were born. But while the shows were risqué – oiled-up men gyrating on stage for an audience of women clamouring to tuck dollar bills into G-strings, the first time male striptease had really been brought into the mainstream – as the dance troupe became a cultural phenomenon in the 1980s, the true story of what was happening behind the scenes turned out to be even more eye-opening.

Founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee’s story of determination and entrepreneurship turned into a tale of bitter rivalry and greed, culminating in arson, hired hitmen, and murder. “Anybody or anything that got in Banerjee’s way, he would hire somebody to kill or burn the competitor,” is how an LA FBI agent put it, quoted in an indictment when charges were filed in the 1990s.

The story is now being dramatised in Welcome To Chippendales, created by Robert Siegel (The Wrestler, Pam & Tommy) and starring Kumail Nanjiani alongside Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Zack Palmisano, Colin Seifert and Annaleigh Ashford.

“It’s just an incredible true crime story,” Siegel tells Sky News. “Crime mixed with sex and drugs and male stripping. It’s a crazy, fun world. But then there’s a lot of real substance. It was an opportunity to explore all these big issues of racism and capitalism and what it means to be an outsider, and the American dream, immigration…

“And the protagonist… just to have this Indian immigrant, conservative, very buttoned up, nerdy guy, dropped in the middle of this wild world of Los Angeles and cocaine and stripping.

“He followed the classic immigrant journey of: go to America, work hard, apply your entrepreneurial skills and build a business and make something of yourself. He was doing exactly what is thought of as the classic immigrant success story, but he was applying it to this thing that was so blasphemous and so shocking.”

Banerjee moved to the US in the 1960s, operating a petrol station before buying the Destiny II club in 1975. Full of ideas to make his bar stand out, the venue reportedly hosted female mud wrestling and exotic dancing before the idea of male striptease – “for ladies only” – was born.

The Chippendales became a phenomenon, the dancers instantly known for their uniform of bow-tie, collar and cuffs – a reversal of the iconic Playboy trademark given the go-ahead following a deal with Hugh Hefner.

‘Disneyland for women’

“The club began drawing overflow crowds of women, who for a $20 admission could ogle and kiss sweaty, tanned, well-muscled young men in G-strings,” according to a Los Angeles Times archive report.

By 1981, the Chippendales had their own “man of the month” calendar. In an interview with the LA Times, Banerjee described the experience as “Disneyland for women”. More clubs opened in New York, Dallas and Denver.

But the success of the Chippendales led to imitations. As reported in the LA Times, “Banerjee’s concern about those competitors led to three arson attempts”, according to a government sentencing memorandum; two attempts led to minor damage at two competitor bars, while plans for a third were abandoned.

Trouble was also brewing between Banerjee and TV director and choreographer Nick De Noia, who helped transform the show into the huge stage production it became. In 1983, De Noia wrote on a napkin that he had the right to take the Chippendales on the road and own the show in perpetuity; Banerjee reportedly signed it, not understanding the full nature of what that meant.

Amid all this came financial trouble, with a racial discrimination lawsuit filed in 1983, and an error during the 1987 calendar print run leading to February having 31 days – costing the company about $300,000 (about £247,000 today).

Murder-for-hire, solicitation to commit murder, and arson charges

In 1987, De Noia was shot in the face while sitting at his office desk in Manhattan, New York. It was several years before Banerjee was formally implicated for his involvement – but by the time he was charged with murder for hire in 1993, he was also charged with plotting to kill two Chippendales dancers and a producer who had reportedly defected to rival groups.

Candace Mayeron, who worked on the show and the touring production with De Noia after he parted ways with Banerjee, says there was not a “scintilla of doubt” in her mind as to who was behind the murder.

“Steve and Nick had come to loggerheads,” she told Elle magazine in 2021. “Nick was a silver-tongued New Yorker, who was constantly going on TV to talk about Chippendales. He started being referred to as ‘Mr Chippendales’. I think that helped fuel the anger that Steve had toward Nick. Their verbal fights became vicious. I was with Nick for such a long time, and I never knew him to have other enemies. It wasn’t that hard to connect the dots.”

Banerjee’s charges came under the US federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) through a pattern of racketeering activity that included murder for hire, solicitation to commit murder and arson, according to official reports.

In the hours before his sentencing in 1994, Banerjee was found dead in his prison cell, having taken his own life.

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Siegel researched the case from news reports and court documents from the time, as well as books and podcasts looking back at what happened.

“There are very few interviews with Steve,” he says. “I mean, almost none. So we kind of had to piece what little we had [about his life] together… there’s court documents and articles about the crimes, the arsons… the club’s financial troubles.

“There were articles about the racial discrimination lawsuit, where the club was discriminating against black patrons. Steve equated whiteness with class and he didn’t want black people in the club.”

Siegel says he was most shocked finding out about what happened with the 1987 calendar, and how it became the catalyst for Banerjee’s downfall.

“It’s this total debacle that, that kind of causes the financial ruin of the company and causes [Banerjee] to kind of lose his s***. It’s sort of the final nail in the coffin for him. Later I found out he came from a printing family.

“That’s such a gift from the writing gods… he left India, turned his back on the family business and he came to America. And ultimately, the thing that was his undoing was a printing error.”

Welcome To Chippendales, starring Kumail Nanjiani, premieres in the UK on 11 January on Disney+