Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Make up your own mind...

These are the contents of an email I recieved recently, I will not make any comments on the issue other than to say that several of the documents that were attached (which I've loaded onto Google Docs) date back several years - 2003-2004 in fact and a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. I do not know if these are the ramblings of a disgruntled former employee and what exactly happened. Before I start the mail though, I heard some news about the launch of Financial Chronicle being put on hold, the paper which was supposed to be launched on the 14th, might have an indefinate delay and not because drunk people fall down stairs. However, the Times is launching its Chennai edition on the 14th.
Enough of me, the only edit I've made is to remove the email address of the sender.
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Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 17:39:43 +0530
From: "fired journalist" <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com>
Subject: Big Scoop: High Drama in UTV Office as CEO Flees From Backdoor when Police Come Calling

High Drama in UTV Office as CEO Flees From Backdoor when Police Come Calling~

Self acclaimed Rupert Murdoch of India, Ronnie (Rohinton) Screwvala, escapes from back door of office and flies straight to Singapore as Police come calling at his office ~ April 7, 2008: In a drama that is straight out Hindi potboilers, the CEO of a publicly listed company, Indians second largest film company, UTV Software Communication, had to run from his own office as Police came calling, and escape to Singapore. Ironically, the police were not even there to arrest him, but fearing so, he fled. For he knew the magnanimity of the offence committed this time. The story begins on the second week of February in 2005, when UTV signed a contract with Eagle Home Videos selling rights to 130 Hollywood films from the Miramax library to them and a hindi film, which they said they had, on 11th February 2005. But they did not have the rights to these films, and yet took 50 lakhs from Eagle as advance. From that time to now, Eagle made repeated calls upon UTV, asking them to hand over the master tapes of the said films, or to refund the money, none of which materialised. They were infact placated time and again by UTV on one pretext or the other, citing that all the tapes had not come, or that censoring was taking time. In reality, UTV had all of the tapes, but had realised the potential of the business and wanted to get into it themselves which they ultimately did and started selling the DVD of the titles on their own. This is not fair, but they should have returned the money owed by them. This, they however refused leading Eagle to file a case against UTV in the High Court of Delhi, and filing an FIR in Nizamuddin, accusing UTV of cheating and breach of trust for the said amount of Rs. 50 lac. The case under section 420 of Indian Penal Code 1860 has been registered in Hazrat Nizamuddin Police Station in Delhi, and is a non-bailable offence and a team of Mumbai Police, under instruction of Delhi Police, raided the UTV office last week. However, in a style typical of gangster films where the gangster escapes for his life from a backdoor, the CEO of UTV, Mr. Ronnie Screwvala, managed to escape and headed straight to the airport and flee to Singapore. A car chase by the police would have been the ideal thing to add, but nothing of that sort happened. The CEO of the 1000 odd crore company obviously had better intelligence than common thieves. This, however, is nothing new, as UTV has a history of such offences: • The list of people and organisations who UTV owes money to runs in thousands (some attached herewith)• The number of cheating, fraud and non payment of dues cases in various courts in the country against UTV, runs into hundreds. (some attached herewith)These are verifiable facts, a complete list of which you can get from the legal person at UTV. What is not verifiable are the scores of people that have been legally cheated e.g. the distributors who were paid a pittance for what they made millions on, people whose business ideas have been stolen, small artists and vendors who have not been paid and since there was no paper work involved, there is no question of a case. An example here can be given of Savita Hiremath, who was legally 'fleeced' of the bulk of money UTV made on 'Khosla Ka Ghosla'. Not only that but they announced a Tamil remake of the film to be directed by Priyadarshan without consulting Savita who is considering filing a case against UTV. UTV plays its cards hush hush. Yet, search for 'UTV Litigation' or 'UTV Court Cases' or 'UTV Arbitration' in Google and some reports do crop up of their black deeds. Though most of them are the ones that occur in the course of ones duty e.g. the Jodha Akbar cases. Yet, no one dares file a case against UTV because of their power and clout, and UTV cares nothing for it because they have mastered the legal system. They know things drag on and people lose interest. As India is heading into the new millennium with its head held high, and proud of its achievements, there are these companies which manage to fool the public, the press and other companies which want to earn from an honest days job. India Shining, no India Cheating Indians.
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Attachments (As I noted several of these are very old)
One - Contingement Liability
Two - Copy of Creditors
Three - Creditor Analysis
Four - Legal Notices
Five - List of Legal Cases
Six - Summary of Litigations
Seven - Miramax Library

4 comments:

Ghost Dog said...

My name is Mo Polamar and Founder of Palador. It is very interesting. We were in partnership with UTV for a year from 2006 - mid 2007 and we came out of it. We do have some bad memories attached with UTV but i never expected the depth of this.
I would like to write the story of Palador to you if you are willing to post the same.
UV has an amazing team - a strong legal in Sajid and a strong Fiannce in Chandrasekhar and wonder how any could slip through them like this.
It is also providence for the people whose works get plagiarized for this to come out on the same day as the Krazy 4 story

Satyen K. Bordoloi said...

This is awesome stuff Dude. Congratulations for putting it up. Was part of UTV once so know that a lot of the stuff that is posted inside must be true. But no one would dare stand up against this Goliath. But then hey, not commenting when injustice is happening to others is called passive injustice. And i personally will not stand against such passivity. Congratulations for posting this and if you'd need our version of the story, well, you get in touch with us.

Anonymous said...

So has Mr.Screwvala driven himself and UTV to a point of screwup? Anyway, let me enjoy my screwdriver(cocktail)I just picked up the method from a whacky website:www.fnbworld.com. Cheerio!

Anonymous said...

I did what the "fired journalist" said and found this. Does it give us more insight into this matter? Make your own decision.

http://courtnic.nic.in/dhcorder/dhcqrydisp_o.asp?pn=33028&yr=2008