Several months have gone by, and Vashu Bhagnani’s company, Pooja Entertainment, still hasn’t settled payments owed to filmmakers, artists, and daily wage workers. Back in June, Bhagnani was facing a debt of Rs 250 crore due to the underperformance of his films like Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Mission Raniganj, and Ganapath at the box office.
Recently, filmmakers Ali Abbas Zafar and Tinu Desai have lodged complaints regarding their unpaid dues against the producer. The FWICE has now urged Vashu Bhagnani to address these outstanding payments.
On September 22, 2024, the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) issued a statement regarding their complaints about not receiving their money from Vashu Bhagnani. FWICE noted that there have been certain speculations regarding Vashu Bhagnani over non-payment of dues to the technicians, workers, artists, and vendors. The organization has now clarified that it has received their respective complaints.
As per the statement, director Tinu Desai, who helmed Akshay Kumar and Parineeti Chopra’s Mission Raniganj last year, filed a complaint over his remaining remuneration. Despite constant follow-ups on Desai’s matter, there has been no update regarding his balance amount, the statement added.
FWICE also confirmed that it has received a complaint from Ali Abbas Zafar for his directorial venture, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan released earlier this year. Zafar hasn’t been paid his “direction fees” for Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff-starrer.
Apart from this, the technical crew and vendors of Vikas Bahl’s helmer, Ganapath have also complained about their dues. Bahl’s film, Ganapath starred Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon in the lead roles and tanked at the box office. FSSAMU, the largest association of daily wage-setting workers, has also filed a complaint regarding the nonpayment of the dues of its daily wage workers, the statement further stated.
FWICE has made the decision that Vashu Bhagnani is required to settle his outstanding payments to workers, technicians, artists, and vendors. “We have gone through all the contracts and come to the conclusion that our workers, technicians, artists, and vendors owe a huge amount of money which the said producer will have to pay,” said the organization.
FWICE concluded by hoping that Vashu would come forward and clear all the dues of artists, technicians, workers and others from the film fraternity.
As per an earlier report from June 2024, the Federation of Western India Cine Employees President BN Tiwari revealed that Vashu Bhagnani owes Rs 33.13 lakh to Mission Raniganj director Tinu Suresh Desai. As per Desai’s contract with Vashu’s Pooja Entertainment, the Mission Raniganj director received Rs 3,70,36,092 out of Rs 4,03,50,000 from the latter’s production company. Tiwari admitted that the federation has been following up with Vashu’s firm but the production house hasn’t cleared his dues yet.
The same report also suggested that producer Vashu Bhagnani didn’t clear the dues of 250 workers who worked for his films. Vashu owed Rs 31.78 lakh to them for working on the sets of three movies, Mission Raniganj, Ganapath, and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan back then.
For the uninitiated, Vashu Bhagnani launched Puja Entertainment India Ltd. in 1995. He started his company while producing Coolie No. 1 the same year. Apart from this, Vashu has backed movies like Hero No. 1 (1997), Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998), Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein (2002), Om Jai Jagadish (2002), and Shaadi No. 1 (2005).
