Bollywood is the biggest film making industry in the world, if we talk about the sheer numbers of movies they produce in a year. However, Bollywood has been looked at with suspicion when it comes to their fundings and revenue figures.
It is no secret that Bollywood has been using the black money pumped by the underworld for many decades, and it’s the Don of D-Company, who was calling the shots for many years. However, the time has been changed now, and it is assuemd that Bollywood has been working like a well structured organization. But in recent times we have seen many instances where Bollywood producers, distributors, and actors are involved in pumping the money via unethical way and avoiding taxes with dodgy dealings through hawala and hot-money routes.
We have seen many instances where Bollywood biggies were involved in money major evasion practices such as suppression of receipts from movies, using ancillary sources, inflation of expenses, and a huge amount of out-of-book payments/receipts etc. However, in this article, we would be presenting an explosive fact, which may increase your hatred against Bollywood to another level.
ICICI-Videocon Fraud
This is among the most talked-about frauds in recent times. Former MD And CEO of ICICI, Chanda Kochhar allegedly favored Videocon Group in lending practices. In March 2018, media reported that Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot provided crores of rupees allegedly to NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL), a firm he had set up with Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar and two relatives six months after the Videocon group got Rs 3,250 crore as loan from ICICI Bank in 2012.
He allegedly transferred the proprietorship of the company to a trust owned by Deepak Kochhar for Rs 9 lakh, six months after he received the loan from ICICI Bank. The Videocon account was declared an NPA (Non-performing Assets) or a bad loan in 2017 according to the report.
Upon this expose, Chanda Kochhar subsequently quit ICICI bank following these allegations and is currently being investigated. On 24 January 2019, Chanda, her husband Deepak, and industrialist Venugopal Dhoot were named in a CBI FIR for cheating and defrauding ICICI Bank to the tune of Rs 1,730 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate also lodged a case of money laundering against Chanda Kochhar in connection with loans disbursed by the bank to the Videocon Group which later turned into NPAs. The Enforcement Directorate attached the properties of Chanda Kochhar and her family in connection with the money laundering case on 10 January 2020.
ICICI-Videocon Fraud connection with Bollywood??
Now you may ask us, what is the connection of this ICICI-Videocon with Bollywood? Well the question is valid and we will provide the answer are well, but before that ,we will tell you the story of a small actor, who became a big movie producer in no time.
This actor is from a middle class family. He worked as a small employee with Videocon till 2007. All of a sudden, in 2008, he got a movie “My Name is Anthony Gonsalves” and he joined the list of Bollywood actors.
He hangs out with Salman Khan, does an Auto Rickshaw ride with him, and even was in the same car as Salman. He has even good relationships with Shah Rukh Khan. Very few people know that his first movie ‘My Name is Anthony Gonzalves’ was co-produced by Red Chillies, the production house of Shahrukh Khan.
This person from a middle class family, who has give 5 big flop movies, and had no talent and looks, all of a sudden becomes the CEO of a big production house in 2014. Since then he has produced many renowned movies Dabangg-3 and Veerey di wedding. He is also producing a movie with Anurag Kashyap, a TV series and a web series also. Isnt this weird that someone who came from a humble background, who was a flopped actor, got such a huge money that he is now producing big budget movies, worth several crores.
Well, for your reference, we are talking about Nikhil Dwivedi.
In a recent video, another small-time actor Kamaal Rashid Khan (KRK) leveled some serious allegations on Nikhil Dwivedi and Videocon’s Owners, that they siphoned off the loan money taken from ICICI and created a film production company known as Saffron Broadcast and Media Limited.
KRK further stated that Saffron Broadcast Media Limited is a Public incorporated on 14 October 2015. It is classified as a Non-govt company and is registered at Registrar of Companies, Mumbai. Directors of Saffron Broadcast And Media Limited are Sunil Tandon, Nikhil Srigovind Dwivedi, Rajendra Mahadev Patil. Since its inception, several Directors have resigned and new Directors have joined this company, but it is Nikhil Dwivedi who has not only retained as a ‘Wholetime Director‘, but he in fact became the CEO of this organization as well.
Isn’t this unusual that a company that’s value is worth several Crores make Nikhil Dwivedi its CEO?
Another important aspect is, that initially, a member of the Dhoot Family was the founding Director of this company, but the moment this ICICI-Videocon scam was exposed, the Dhoot family resigned from Saffron Media and make Nikhil Dwivedi the CEO of this firm.
Last year even Shah Rukh Khan has agreed to act in Nikhil Dwivedi’s co-production with Videocon’s Anirudh Dhoot. The biggest star of Bollywood is working with this production house, isn’t that unusual?
Before that in 2019, the same production house produced Dabangg-3, which starred Salman Khan, another mass entertainer and a huge star of Bollywood. How can an unknown producer produce such a huge movie?
It is important to note that Dhoot Family diverted the money taken as a loan to their other entities. It is very much possible that the Dhoot family diverted several crores into Saffron Broadcast Media Limited and then channeling the same money to produce Bollywood movies and using the public money for their welfare.
Conclusion
A Bollywood film is produced and published via a highly complex channel of production studios, distributors, and stars. The process of accumulating ill-gotten funds starts with production houses and producer lines up ad-hoc unaccounted funds in the guise of loans under bogus names. This instance raises an alarm as this is public money, that should be returned to the bank, rather than being used for making movies.
These scammers are using their pawns like Nikhil Dwivedi to operate this ill-gotten money and earn huge moolah out of nowhere.
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