Hyderabad, August 26: A producer, who invested in the recent Telugu movie Target with Mumaith Khan as one of the lead actresses, went missing from his house at Bowenpally unable to bear the harassment by a film financier.
The film did not do well at the box office driving the producer into financial losses, police said.
Dasarath Singishetty, the producer of Target, left behind a note stating that harassment by financiers had forced him to leave the house and asked his family not to search for him. The movie, Target, had Shiva Balaji and Shraddha Das in lead roles apart from Mumaith Khan.
Dasarath left home on Monday night at around 8.30 pm and did not return till Tuesday afternoon following which a complaint was registered with the Bowenpally police.
Family members found the note in which Dasarath said that he took a loan of Rs 1.50 crore from a film financier, Ramakrishnaiah, to produce the film.
“Dasarath wrote that the financiers had helped immensely in making the film. But in the same letter, the producer said that they (financiers) were harassing him for repayment of the money he had taken,” Bowenpally police inspector M Ganesh Reddy said.
The financier reportedly went to Dasarath’s office at Yellareddyguda and pressurised him to repay the amount. Dasarath gave blank cheques for the repayment of the loan amount but as he did not have enough balance, they bounced.
Dasarath also sold his property as well but could not repay the entire amount, police said. Dasarath accused Ramakrishnaiah of fooling him into giving away the satellite and dubbing rights of the film. He reportedly complained about the matter to the Producer’s Guild as well.
The producer stated that a lab manager, Kalyan, and the financier had cheated him while producing the film. In the letter, Dasarath asked his family members not to search for him as he was ‘leaving the world’. Police registered a missing case.
–Agencies–