The three executive producers of Ashtavinayak Cinevision – Rupen Amlani, Dhaval Jatania, and Hiren Gandhi, who were producers of the Golmaal series and Jab We Met, were imprisoned in Arthur Road Jail on May 10, 2017. They were later released in 2018 after serving nearly a year’s sentence for their ostensible role in the scam of Rs 824 crores involving misappropriation of public funds.
Similarly, Raj Mehta (Harshad Purshottamdas Mehta), who is the lead manager of Ashtavinayak Cinevision, is set to get conditional bail from imprisonment nearly after 6.5 years for money laundering cases and deceiving shareholders, and misappropriation of public funds.
Raj Mehta and his son Dhilin Mehta were both arrested in April 2015. Also, Ashtavinayak Cinevision was suspended from trading in 2012. Ashtavinayak Cinevision had produced many super hit films like Blue, Jab We Met, Golmaal Series, Rockstar, Kidnap, Good Newwz, Ironic Odyssey, Dabangg, Bol Bacchan.
Raj Mehta is an Indian director who first earned recognition in the Hindi film industry with his work on the short film Ironic Odyssey (2009) which he directed, wrote, and produced. The first feature film he worked on was Aarakshan, for which he assisted in the directorial department.
Directors Shashank Khaitan, Neeraj Ghaywan, Raj Mehta, and Kayoze Irani revealed their plan of making an anthology film which they later produced “Ajeeb Daastaans”. He worked as assistant director in various films like Badrinath ki Dulhaniyaan, Aurangzeb, Teri Meri Kahanni, Bewakoofiyaan, Arakshan. His upcoming movie is “Jug Jugg Jeeyo” starring Varun Dhawan, Kiara Adwani, and Anil Kapoor. The release dates are yet to be confirmed.
His son, Dhilin Mehta, is an Indian film producer. He served as the chief executive officer of Ashtavinayak Cinevision and was the producer of the Doordarshan serial Amrapali. He started his career with small-budget films like Agnipankh and Fan2shh and then took the Ashtavinayak Cinevision to new heights by producing super hit blockbusters movies like Dabangg, Khatta Meetha, Bhagham bhag, Maine Pyaar Kyu Kiya?, Shararat. He was arrested by Rajasthan Police hours before he was scheduled to board a flight to Delhi but was granted bail on the same day.
Sources have also revealed that the bail order for Raj Mehta’s release was handed out on Tuesday evening. Nonetheless, there is no clarity on his son Dhilin Mehta’s bail. According to the reports of a media house, Dhilin Mehta had incorporated various companies, entered into illegal agreements, and also transferred funds to the foreign subsidiary companies.
The main reason for the conditional bail of Raj Mehta is because there is no probability of fulfillment of an insufficient prosecution period. Raj’s conditional bail consented that the producer must surrender his passport and regularly report to the local police and be present at every hearing.
Akshay Kumar is likely to work with Raj Mehta three years after their release of the comedy film Good Newwz; they will start the film shooting next year, which Karan Johar will produce. The shoot is expected to start from January next year once Akshay is done shooting for “Oh My God”, “Ram Setu”, “Cinderella”.
Raj Mehta’s film “Good Newzz” turned out to be a bigger blockbuster than his previous movies. The film starring Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Diljit Doshan Dosanjh collected a worldwide gross collection of 318 crore rupees. It turned out to be the sixth highest-grossing Bollywood movie of 2019.
Also, the Golmaal series turned out to be the career changer for Raj Mehta as each movie has a gross collection of above 60 crores. There are 4 Golmaal movies directed by Rohit Shetty starring Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Tushar Kapoor, Kunal Khemu.
Edited by Anupama Roy
