Rajkumar Santoshi, the renowned filmmaker who is gearing up for his upcoming directorial project ‘Lahore 1947,’ has been handed a two-year prison sentence by a Jamnagar court in connection with a case involving bounced cheques.
The complainant is a prominent industrialist based out of Jamnagar, Ashok Lal. He asserted that he was given ten cheques, each amounting to Rs 10 lakh, by the filmmaker. However, all these cheques, totalling Rs 1 crore, were later bounced.
The lawyer representing Lal in this specific case, Piyush Bhojani, confirmed this to ANI on Saturday, February 17. As per the advocate, Lal invested Rs 1 crore in Santoshi for his film. In an attempt to repay the financier, Rajkumar Santoshi purportedly issued 10 cheques. After the checks were deposited in the bank within the given time period, the businessman contended that they bounced.
Additionally, he stated that he initially tried to communicate with the filmmaker regarding this issue. However, he maintained that all efforts to reach out to the filmmaker proved futile, which led him to file a lawsuit under the Negotiable Instruments Act. In a court hearing on Saturday, February 17, the ‘Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani’ director was sentenced to two years in jail, and the court directed him to reimburse the businessman double the amount owed, now totalling Rs 2 crore.
Bhojani said, “Subsequently, the accused applied to transfer the case filed against him to a Mumbai court, which was challenged by the complainant in the sessions court. The sessions court directed that all cases against Santoshi be heard in the Jamnagar.”
As for Santoshi’s upcoming film ‘Lahore 1947,’ it stars Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta is lead roles. Being produced Aamir Khan Productions, this will mark the 17th movie under the banner owned by Aamir Khan. Interestingly enough, though Santoshi and Deol have worked on several projects together like ‘Ghayal,’ and ‘Damini,’ this much-awaited film will be the first collaboration between the director, Deol and Khan.
While a release date for the film has not been announced, the filming has already commenced earlier this week. But whether this legal battle will postpone the wait of the fans for a long, long time is yet to be announced by the makers of the film.
