Income Tax officials are carrying out searches at the offices of Mythri Movie Makers in Hyderabad for the second day. They are also searching the homes of director Sukumar and others involved in the company. The officials are investigating allegations that the production house brought in funds from abroad to invest in Tollywood, breaking investment regulations. This is the second time in less than four months that I-T officials have carried out searches. They suspect the production house of using Hawala transactions and have found evidence that Sukumar purchased a lot of land and properties. Bollywood director Siddharth Anand was also paid an advance to direct a film with Prabhas.
Mythri Movie Makers is currently producing ‘Ustad Bhagat Singh’ with actor-politician Pawan Kalyan. The production house allegedly allowed an investment of Rs 500 crore from abroad without following Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms. They also apparently failed to disclose total investments and income sources in their Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filing. The I-T officials have seized some documents from the movie makers and are asking for details of the properties possessed in their names for the last two years.
