Posted:
Tuesday 30 April 2013 8 am. Just another day at the
Balaji Telefilms head office opposite Fun Cinemas in the
Andheri West suburb of Mumbai. Normally, scores of
aspirants from all over India come to its gates everyday
and leave their photographs, their concepts, in the hope
that the Queen of Indian television - slowly becoming the
queen of Indian cinema will give them that elusive break.
Which she has done over the past decade and build
many an acting aspirant's, writer's and director's career.
At least 200 young TV professionals buzzing with ideas
go up the six story building, park themselves in their
respective desks and plan the next big spike for the
television shows Balaji delivers to TV channels everyday.
But this morning was a little different. Posses of income
tax officials - from the seize and seizure department -
reportedly stormed the Balaji head office, Krishna
Bungalow in Juhu (where Ekta, Jeetendra Kapoor and
Shobha Kapoor reside), brother Tusshar's home, apart
from other locations.
At the time of writing, the raids were reportedly still on
and a press release/briefing was expected from Balaji
Telefilms a little later in the day. All the locations in
which raids were in progress - at the time of writing -
were like fotresses with no one being allowed entry. And
those who did get access had to hand over their phones.
Ekta Kapoor and Balaji Telefilms have come even more
into the limelight after she successfully launched her film
banner Alt Entertainment and Balaji Films. With her slew
of successful movies in her pocket ( The Dirty Picture, Ek
Thi Dayaan, Love Sex Aur Dokha, Ragini MMS), she was
readying to release Shootout at Wadala on 3 May which
is expected to do well at the box office.
Reports are that the IT department believes it should
have been paid more money as tax by Balaji than it did.
Details were not available at the time of writing.
"This could well be a case of the well-entrenched players
in the Hindi film industry seeing Balaji Telefilms as a
competitor who could threaten their fiefdom," says a
veteran film industry critic. "It's like this: every time
someone makes a dent in the entertainment industry
either rivals or the government intervene to make life
difficult for him or her. The current IT raid may well be
in that space. Only time will tell us what it was all
about."
Balaji Telefilms head office opposite Fun Cinemas in the
Andheri West suburb of Mumbai. Normally, scores of
aspirants from all over India come to its gates everyday
and leave their photographs, their concepts, in the hope
that the Queen of Indian television - slowly becoming the
queen of Indian cinema will give them that elusive break.
Which she has done over the past decade and build
many an acting aspirant's, writer's and director's career.
At least 200 young TV professionals buzzing with ideas
go up the six story building, park themselves in their
respective desks and plan the next big spike for the
television shows Balaji delivers to TV channels everyday.
But this morning was a little different. Posses of income
tax officials - from the seize and seizure department -
reportedly stormed the Balaji head office, Krishna
Bungalow in Juhu (where Ekta, Jeetendra Kapoor and
Shobha Kapoor reside), brother Tusshar's home, apart
from other locations.
At the time of writing, the raids were reportedly still on
and a press release/briefing was expected from Balaji
Telefilms a little later in the day. All the locations in
which raids were in progress - at the time of writing -
were like fotresses with no one being allowed entry. And
those who did get access had to hand over their phones.
Ekta Kapoor and Balaji Telefilms have come even more
into the limelight after she successfully launched her film
banner Alt Entertainment and Balaji Films. With her slew
of successful movies in her pocket ( The Dirty Picture, Ek
Thi Dayaan, Love Sex Aur Dokha, Ragini MMS), she was
readying to release Shootout at Wadala on 3 May which
is expected to do well at the box office.
Reports are that the IT department believes it should
have been paid more money as tax by Balaji than it did.
Details were not available at the time of writing.
"This could well be a case of the well-entrenched players
in the Hindi film industry seeing Balaji Telefilms as a
competitor who could threaten their fiefdom," says a
veteran film industry critic. "It's like this: every time
someone makes a dent in the entertainment industry
either rivals or the government intervene to make life
difficult for him or her. The current IT raid may well be
in that space. Only time will tell us what it was all
about."
Anupamaa
Current Affairs
