Income Tax Raid Faces by Indian actress Taapsee Pannu and Film Maker Anurag Kashyap at morning
Income Tax Department has conducted searches at residences of actress Taapsee Pannu and director/producer Anurag Kashyap and Vikas Bahl. Residence of producer Madhu Mantena was also searched. The IT department is conducting searches on people related to Phantom Films over allegations of tax evasion.
As many as 22 locations are being raided by the IT-department, including Kwan talent management agency.
Phantom Films that has been disbanded now, was a film production and distribution company started by Anurag Kashyap, director Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Madhu Mantena and Vikas Bahl. It was established in 2011 before getting dissolved in October 2018. Bahl was accused of sexual harassment, following which the production company dissolved. Three years later Madhu Mantena bought the stakes of Kashyap, Motwane and Bahl. It is known for popular classics like Lootera (2013), NH10 (2015), Masaan (2015), Udta Punjab (2016) and Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016).
Kwan is a talent management platform that manages leading celebrities, influencers, scriptwriters, sportspersons, directors, producers, composers, comedians, authors, digital stars across categories including cinema, OTT, television, music, sports, digital as well as regional categories. It was established in 2009 by Anirban Das Blah, along with his brother Indranil Das Blah, Madhu Mantena, Vijay Subramanium and Dhruv Chitgopekar. Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Kriti Sanon and Deepika Padukone, Anurag Kashyap and Phantom Films are some of its clients.
Meanwhile, Phantom Films was established by Anurag Kashyap, director Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Madhu Mantena and the former head of UTV Spotboy Vikas Bahl. Films like Hasee Toh Phasee and Shaandaar were produced under the production house. In 2018, the company announced its dissolution after sexual assault complaints against director Vikas Bahl by a former Phantom employee surfaced.
After dissolving Phantom Films, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap launched his new production company, Good Bad Films, whose digital affair started with film Choked. Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena also moved on with their independent projects. Anurag Kashyap had been vocal about condemning the violence against anti-Citizenship Act protesters in 2019. Last year, he had expressed support for actor Rhea Chakraborty in the Sushant Singh Rajput case and had slammed Bollywood actors for not speaking up enough on the case.
"The Income Tax department probes someone based on whatever information they get. The issue goes to court later," Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said during a BJP briefing.
Anurag Kashyap and Taapsee Pannu are outspoken critics of the government and have lent their voice to various causes, including the ongoing farmer protests against central laws. Recently, Ms Pannu had criticised the show of solidarity by celebrities towards the government in response to pop star Rihanna's post drawing attention to the farmers' agitation. The actor took a jibe at the pushback and said it was better to focus on strengthening one's own value system if one tweet rattled one's belief.