Following the demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes, there have been reports of people possessing black money – most of which is in old currency notes, trying various ways to invest their cash without getting caught.
Income-Tax officials on Friday raided Arka Mediaworks, the Banjara Hills office of Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni, producers of the superhit film Baahubali.
As per sources, the raids were conducted by a team of I-T officials in around 30 locations related to the two producers including at their houses and the houses of some of their relatives in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Also, they conducted raid even at a distributor’s home.
The team found around Rs 70 crores (Banned Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes) after investigating all the locations. Key documents were seized from the office of the producers.
Baahubali – The Beginning, directed by S.S. Rajamouli, became a huge success which has collected Rs 650 crore. The second part of the movie is all set to release by April next year. The production cost for both parts is around Rs 250 crore.
A Tollywood producer, said, “The Telugu film industry had always been under the I-Trader but no one expected this kind of a surprise raid.”
The source added, “Apart from the huge business of the second part, the producers are minting money from part-1 of the movie. The television rights were sold for a big amount. It seems the I-T officials want to check those accounts. Also, “There may be more raids coming on key persons in Tollywood, especially those who distributed the first part of the movie and earned huge profits.”
“The selling of rights for Baahubali-2 is huge. As per a source, the Nizam area rights were sold for Rs 50 crore to Mr. Sunil Narang of Global Cinema. Other areas also did roaring business, double of Baahubali-1.”