NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department has detected financial irregularities of over Rs 350 crore after it raided two film production companies, two talent management companies and a leading actress, the Central Board of Direct Taxes claimed. The statement from the CBDT came as raids on the homes and offices of Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu, director Anurag Kashyap and his partners who launched the now-shuttered Phantom Films continued in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad.
According to PTI, the searches also covered some executives of celebrity and KWAN and Exceed talent management companies.
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The Income Tax Department on Wednesday (March 3) raided the homes and offices of Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap as well as his partners who launched the now-shuttered production house Phantom Films, officials said. The searches, part of a tax evasion probe against Phantom Films and carried out across 28 locations in Mumbai and Pune. It also covered some executives from celebrity and talent management companies KWAN and Exceed.Â
Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap, both known to be outspoken in their views on a range of issues, are shooting in Pune and are understood to have been questioned by the tax sleuths as part of the preliminary questioning that took place during raids. The duo worked together in 2018 film ‘Manmarziyaan’, and are now collaborating in the upcoming film ‘Dobaara’.
Others searched include some Phantom Films production house employees, which was dissolved in 2018, and it’s then promoters Kashyap, director-producer Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Vikas Bahl and producer-distributor Madhu Mantena. Tax department sources said some inter-linked transactions between the entities searched are under the scanner of the department.
Evidence of huge suppression of income by the leading film production house compared to actual box office collections has been unearthed, a statement from CBDT, the administrative body of the IT Department, claimed. Evidence related to ‘manipulation and under-valuation of share transactions of the production house amongst the film directors and shareholders, with a tax implication of about Rs 350 crore, has also been found and is being further investigated, it alleged.
The business transactions of films made under the banner of Phantom Films are also being probed, PTI quoted sources as saying. The searches against Mantena are also being carried out in the context of his links with KWAN, of which he is a co-promoter. While Kwan’s client list includes Deepika Padukone, Exceed manages Saif Ali Khan and Sonakshi Sinha among others.
(With PTI inputs)
