A dispute over an unreleased 2014 film led producer Satyendra Tyagi to seek the hoodlum's help to recover his money, police said.
Gangster Ravi Pujari's extortion calls to filmmaker Remo D'Souza land producer in police net
Mumbai - 07 Mar 2018 23:35 IST
Our Correspondent
The crime branch of the Mumbai police has arrested a film producer, Satyendra Tyagi, in connection with extortionist calls being made to director-choreographer Remo D'Souza and his wife, as reported by the Hindustan Times newspaper on its website.
Gangster Ravi Pujari was making the calls to D'Souza and his wife Lizelle over the past few months at Tyagi's behest, the report said.
Tyagi was arrested in Delhi on 5 March and brought to Mumbai for investigation, an officer said.
The dispute pertains to a film titled Death Of Amar (2014) that Tyagi co-produced with D’Souza. The film starred Rajeev Khandelwal, Zareen Khan and Prashant Narayanan. It was screened at the 22nd San Francisco Global Movie Fest and won the Audience Choice award. But it could not get released in India.
According to the police, Tyagi then began demanding that D’Souza, co-producer of the film, return his money. When D’Souza failed to comply, Tyagi allegedly approached Pujari for help.
The Hindustan Times report quoted a police officer as saying, “From August 2017 to January 2018, D’Souza and his wife received multiple calls from Pujari who threatened them with dire consequences if they did not give Rs5 crore to Tyagi, an NOC [no-objection certificate, presumably for the film's release] and Rs50 lakh to Pujari.”
