Film producer duped of Rs 39 lakh; 19 booked

RAJKOT: A Rajkot-based producer, who wanted to make a Hindi film in

Bollywood

, has lodged a complaint of fraud worth Rs 39.25 lakh against 19 crew members of his proposed film which include noted actor Raza Murad and actress Kainaat Arora.

Complainant Girish Solanki (39), a resident of Shyamal Plaza Apartment at Raiya Chowkdi in Rajkot, who is a builder and a producer, has made Hindi film, ‘Pagal Kar Diya Tune’, several TV serials as well as ads and short films.

He had approached Hafizoor Abdul Rehman, a Mumbai-based actor and key accused in the case, to make the film ‘Pagal Kar Diya Tune’ in Andheri suburb of Mumbai in April 2017. Rehman promised Solanki to get him director, music director, line producer, actors and other film crew members.

In May 17, 2017, Solanki had called Rehman to Rajkot where they finalized the crew members of the film. Rehman had asked Solanki to open a joint account in their names in Saurashtra Gramin Bank and made Solanki transfer a total of Rs 39.25 lakh in instalments.

Rehman would ask Solanki to transfer money as the signing amount to a crew member, and Solanki would transfer the money. Solanki transferred Rs 50,000 meant to be paid as signing amount to Murad and Rs 1.5 lakh to Arora. He made Solanki pay the signing amounts to Sanjivkumar Vedwan as the director, Manish Sheth as the line producer, Sarib Raja as the equipment supplier, Vikargiri Bhulegiri as the comedian, Virendra Chandansinh as the choreographer, Dinesh Shinde as the art director, Mozes Fernandes as the action director, Anju Padalia as the make-up artist, Mahendra Rayan as the director of photography, Manoj Bakshi as the actor, Surendra Kumar Thakur as the actor, Firoz Sayed as the light man, Priyakumari Ojha as the assistant director, Rahul Shankar Verma as the associate producer, Iqbal Sheikh as the story writer and Krunal Verma as the music director.

“All these persons have been named as accused in the case. The amount paid to each is yet to be ascertained as it was paid by Rehman and details will be known after his arrest. The accused allegedly didn’t give dates to Solanki and did not return signing amount, following which Solanki approached police with a complaint,” said R Y Rawal, inspector of University police station.