Is 'Welcome to Chippendales' a True Story?

Welcome to Chippendales is the jaw-dropping new series airing every Thursday on Hulu about the dark side of the Chippendales male striptease dance troupe and its founder, Somen "Steve" Banerjee.

The series stars Kumail Nanjiani, Murray Bartlett, Annaleigh Ashford and Juliette Lewis, with Nicola Pletz and Dan Stevens in supporting roles.

However, the show isn't all attractive men dancing down to their underwear, what transpires is something so surprisingly and shockingly dark, audiences will not be ready for the twist and turns.

Is Welcome to Chippendales based on a true story? Newsweek has everything you need to know.

Be warned—there may be spoilers about Welcome to Chippendales below.

Is Welcome to Chippendales a True Story?

Welcome to Chippendales is based on a true story and inspired by shocking real events.

The majority of the show's characters are also based on real people including Banerjee, Nick De Noia, Banerjee's wife Irene, Dorothy Stratten and Paul Snider.

The eighth part-series follows Banerjee's formation of the Chippendales in 1979, with the help of Canadian club promoter Paul Snider.

Banerjee, an Indian immigrant, quit his job at a gas station and purchased a failed LA club named Destiny II in the late 1970s.

He opened the space as a backgammon club, but with Snider's help and playboy model Dorothy Stratten, they transformed Destiny II into Chippendales, the home of America's first male stripper and dance troupe.

Sadly, Stratten would not live to see the success of Chippendales. On August 14, 1980, she was killed by her estranged husband, Snider, who then turned the gun on himself.

Banerjee then joined forces with Nick De Noia, an Emmy-winning director, and renowned choreographer. Together, they turned the Chippendales into a household name. It quickly became a global franchise, spanning mainland Europe, the U.S. and the U.K.

Speaking to Newsweek about preparing for the role of Banerjee, Nanjiani shared that he was a "little scared" to take on the role as he hadn't done anything like it before.

He said: "I decided to do it because the real story was so exciting and enthralling and it was about so many things that are important to me and I think, sort of important in the conversation but on top of that, I just thought it could be like a really, really unpredictable story. I couldn't believe all this real stuff that happened. So I was like, 'wow, the opportunity to play someone like this, in a world of like this just doesn't come along'."

He continued: "When I first saw a picture of him with all the other dancers, and it was all these gorgeous white Adonises and then this, awkward, brown fat nerd and it felt like he was the king of a world that wouldn't have him. If he wasn't the king, they would not have any time for him. So to me, that image was very arresting, it was like, 'Oh, he's Lord of the world that he doesn't belong in' and, so that's where all that came from.

"A lot of his characterization was in opposition to what he's surrounded by, which is people who are comfortable with themselves comfortable with their body, artistic, and fluid, and he's everything they're not. He's rigid, he's not comfortable with his body. He doesn't like himself. And he's not artistic in any way."

Nanjiani also said to prepare for the role he listened to a lot of music from the 1980s and watched movies such as Towering Inferno, All That Jazz, and American Psycho to gauge Banerjee's mindset.

As audiences will begin to see as the story of Welcome to Chippendales progresses, things for Banerjee and the Chippendales company began to take a dark turn in the 1980s.

After clashing over their creative differences, De Noia, who served as the group's choreographer left Banerjee in LA to start up a Chippendales tour and live show under the organization Chippendales Universal, which was increasingly popular in New York City. De Noia paid royalties to Banerjee for the right to use the Chippendales name.

The deal between them had been agreed on the back of a napkin, with De Noia receiving 50 percent of the profits from the touring Chippendales. When Banerjee realized the lucrative success of the tour, he became frustrated.

Speaking with The Independent, Candace Mayeron, an associate producer for the revue from 1981 to 1987, said: "Nick was getting the credit for Chippendales and was getting half of the door. He was jealous of Nick's ability to handle all the attention."

In 1987, Banerjee hired Ray Colon, a former Palm Springs police officer and lounge room entertainer to murder Chippendales show producer De Noia. Colon, in turn, hired a man named Gilberto Rivera Lopez to carry out the killing.

De Noia was shot dead in 1986 by a man posing as a messenger at his midtown Manhattan office on April 7, 1987. He was 46 years old.

For years, Banerjee wasn't linked to De Noia's murder, but in 1993, everything changed.

The Chippendales began to face worldwide competition from other dance troupes and Banerjee was determined for his business and brand to stay on top.

In 1990 and 1991, Banerjee plotted to kill Michael Fullington, a former Chippendales dancer, and choreographer, and two other ex-Chippendales dancers, Read Scot and Steve White. They were then part of the rival dance troupe Adonis.

The murder-for-hire plot was uncovered when a man, named "Strawberry" by the authorities informed the FBI he had been hired by Banerjee. The FBI was led to De Noia's killer, Colon, who eventually began to cooperate as an informant.

Colon met with Banerjee and eventually got Banerjee to confess to plotting the murder of Fullington, Scot, and White, as well as planning De Noia's death.

Banerjee was also accused of three arson attempts, leading to minor damage at two competitor bars: Moody's Disco in Santa Monica in 1979 and the Red Onion Restaurant & Bar in Marina del Rey in 1985. He had abandoned the third attempt on another rival bar.

Banerjee pleaded guilty to attempted arson, racketeering, and murder for hire. He accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

However, on October 23, 1994, just a few hours before he was due to be sentenced, Banerjee was found dead in his prison cell, having taken his own life. He was 47 years old.

Episodes of Welcome to Chippendales drop every Tuesday on Hulu.