A magistrate court convicted and sentenced a so-called casting agent to three years’ imprisonment for falsely promising people roles in films and ad films and running away with their money. The court said, Manish Thakkar (alias Guru) had cheated around 32 persons of a total of Rs. 1.70 crore. He even threatened one victim and told her, he would harm her teenaged daughter. The other accused in the case are absconding.
The case was registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in 2010. Manish and co-accused Mohamed Soni would call gullible struggling artistes to their office after issuing ads in newspapers, collect entrance fees from them, hold fake auditions, and even ask the strugglers to pay for the auditions on the pretext that they were selected. The aspiring actors would sometimes actually get bit roles and would be lured into making larger payments for bigger assignments.
In one case, four “courier boys” beat up a woman whose son had paid Rs. 12 lakh by way of refundable deposit for a film role. He was promised a fee of Rs. 38 lakh for the role. When the woman pestered Thakkar for refund after the film role never materialised, he asked her to settle the matter by accepting Rs. 1 lakh in December 2008. She was beaten up in June 2009.