IT Dept. Raids Taapsee Pannu, Reliance Entertainment CEO and Phantom Films Promoters

Mumbai/New Delhi, March 3: The Income Tax Department on Wednesday raided premises linked to filmmakers, including Anurag Kashyap, who had launched the now-dissolved production house Phantom Films, Reliance Entertainment group CEO Shibhashish Sarkar and Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu, officials said. 

Kashyap and Pannu have been outspoken in their criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre with the latter consistent in her support of the farmers’ protests against the Farm Laws. The 33-year-old has worked in numerous Hindi, Tamil and Telugu movies.

PTI reported that the searches were being carried out in over 30 locations in Mumbai and Pune. Some executives of celebrity and talent management company KWAN were also being raided.

The action is part of a tax evasion probe against Phantom Films, which was dissolved in 2018, and its then promoters Kashyap, director-producer Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Vikas Bahl and producer-distributor Madhu Mantena, sources told the agency.

According to sources, some inter-linked transactions between the entities being searched were under the scanner of the department and the raids are aimed at gathering more evidence to further probe tax evasion allegations.

Founded in 2011, Phantom Films produced films like ‘Lootera’, ‘Queen’, ‘Ugly’, 
NH 10’, ‘Masaan’ and ‘Udta Punjab’. Kashyap later launched a new production company called Good Bad Films while Motwane launched Andolan Films.

The searches against Mantena were also being carried out in context of his links with KWAN, of which he was a co-promoter, the agency said. 

In a massive action against some big Bollywood personalities, the Income Tax department on Wednesday carried out searches at over 30 locations in Mumbai and Pune, including the premises of noted film Director Anurag Kashyap, actor Taapsee Pannu and filmmaker Vikas Bahl.

Reacting to the news of the IT searches on the Bollywood personalities, Congress Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore, said, according to IANS: “Why is (Union Finance Minister) Nirmala Sitharaman so predictable? It's a sad story for the IT department; it has become so one-sided and political too.”

(With PTI inputs)