Anticipatory bail denied to three booked for allegedly misappropriating ₹4 crore from funds for Kartik Aaryan and Karan Johar's Naagzilla

Three people have been booked in a case concering the alleged misappropriation of funds earmarked for the making of the film Naagzilla.

A sessions court in Mumbai has denied anticipatory bail to three film production executives accused of misappropriating more than ₹3.92 crore during the making of the upcoming Dharma Productions film Naagzilla.

Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan are collaborating on Naagzilla.

Court denies bail in Naagzilla fund misappropriation case

On Wednesday, Additional Sessions Judge (Dindoshi court) M Mohiuddin also ruled that there was prima facie material against them about their involvement in the offence, news agency PTI reported. The court maintained that the custodial interrogation of the accused was necessary for a detailed investigation into the matter

Naagzilla stars Kartik Aaryan and is co-produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and Mahaveer Jain Films. The three accused are consultant and signing authority Kuldeep Singh Champawat (47), service provider and executive producer Mahipal Karan Rathore (42), and line producer Shivkumar Tiwari (45). The PTI report said that an FIR was lodged by Tukaram Mahadev Sawant, an accountant with Mahaveer Jain Films Pvt. Ltd, which is led by Mahaveer Jain and his wife, Neetu Jain.

Mahaveer Jain Films entered into an agreement with Dharma Productions Pvt. Ltd. to produce Naagzilla with a total budget of ₹82.50 crore on October 30 last year. According to the complaint, Kuldeep Singh Champawat approached Mahaveer Jain to handle the film's production and subsequently recommended his relative, Rathore, who was appointed as a service provider. Tiwari was hired as the line producer to onboard vendors for vehicles, makeup, and junior artistes.

What is the case

The prosecution has alleged that the three colluded to bypass the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and incurred unaccounted expenditure of ₹3,92,76,308 without submitting requisite bills or vouchers.

The complaint also alleges that the accused inflated a vendor's bill from ₹85,000 to ₹1.30 lakh and paid ₹45,000 to a firm named ANM Global that rendered no services to the film. In addition, they have also been accused of clearing over ₹1.50 lakh in fabricated bills prepared with a production assistant

The investigating officer of the case informed the court that the accused extracted commissions and mobile handsets from vendors to award work and clear bills.

All about Naagzilla

Naagzilla is directed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, written by Gautam Mehra and produced by Karan Johar, Mahaveer Jain, Adar Poonawalla, Apoorva Mehta, Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, and Neetu M Jain under Dharma Productions and Mahaveer Jain Films. It is co-produced by Marijke deSouza and Divyansh Jain. Kartik plays an icchadhari naag (shapeshifting snake) in the film. The film is set to release in theatres next year.