Film producer gets threat calls, drags Sanjay Dutt

There has been a long-standing dispute between Dutt and producer Shakeel Noorani over alleged losses incurred due to the actor abandoning a film. Noorani launched Jaan Ki Baazi in 2002. He claimed that halfway through the film, Dutt cancelled the shoot and refused to respond to his calls. "He never returned the Rs 50 lakh my client paid him," claimed his lawyer Niraj Gupta.

Noorani filed a case with the Indian Motion Picture's Producers Association (IMPAA), which directed Dutt to pay the producer more than Rs 2 crore for the losses incurred. Noorani moved the Bombay high court praying for the execution of the order.

In 2010, the HC ordered attachment of Dutt's two properties in keeping with the IMPAA order. Gupta alleged that soon after the order, Noorani started getting threat calls asking him to withdraw the case. "We traced the calls to Dubai and Karachi. As the police did not take any action, we filed a complaint with the court on January 24. Either Dutt or his lawyer will have to appear before the court," he said.

Dutt's lawyer Rizwan Merchant alleged that Noorani was only trying to extort money from the actor and malign his reputation.

"Noorani has not produced a single document to show that he had paid the money to Dutt. Even the IMPAA order was ex parte and no notice was issued to Dutt. Noorani claimed that he paid the money in cash but neither his book of accounts nor his income-tax returns show any such transaction."

Merchant claimed that Noorani visited Karachi in 2011. "It seems he used his contacts in Karachi to engineer the calls on his own phone and filed a false complaint against Dutt."