These are slanderous, unfounded reports: Hansal Mehta on financial troubles

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta's Omerta is all set to be released on 4 May. However, the ghosts of his last release Simran (2017), which was a box office failure, have still not left him.

A Kolkata based firm Adarsh Telemedia, owned by Amit Agarwal, has sued Mehta for allegedly failing to repay Rs8.30 crore Mehta and Shailesh Singh borrowed to co-produce Simran, according to a report in DNA, a daily.

The complainant has also alleged that Mehta didn’t get in touch with him after Simran and commenced work on new projects.

The report claims that an arbitrator, appointed by the Supreme Court, has asked Mehta to deposit Rs7.05 crore from what he earns from Omerta in a separate bank account, in a nationalised bank.

Agarwal said, “The Kolkata high court had passed an order asking Hansal and Shailesh to deposit Rs1.5 crore, which they didn’t. So, I filed the case of contempt against them. And since there was a clause of arbitration, I could get the arbitrator appointed by the Supreme Court.”

He also alleged that Singh was one of the co-producers of Omerta but removed his name from the promotional materials of the film to avoid paying the dues from its earnings.

“Shailesh was also said to be the producer of Omerta, but it seems he got his name removed to avoid being made to pay his dues from its proceeds. Both, Shailesh’s and Hansal’s present and future films are in lien till they clear my dues,” he added.

Filmmaker Mehta finally broke his silence on the issue yesterday (28 April) by posting a statement on his Twitter handle.

He has called the reports ‘slanderous’ and ‘unfounded.’ “There are some slanderous and unfounded reports about me floating around in the press. Since the matter is sub judice I’m reserving comment on these. Am awaiting clearance from my legal team before I say anything on the matter. Request everybody to be patient and not speculate,” he wrote.