Mazda Theatres, the company that owns Grant Road’s Naaz building, owes BMC Rs 4 crore. The building houses offices of top distributors and exhibitors, including Sholay producer G P Sippy, Mukta Arts’ branch office, Rahul Haksar’s Janta Film Distributors and offices of Ramesh Sippy of Raksha films
Tanvi Deshpande (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 1, 2018)

Grant Road’s iconic Naaz building, home to Bollywood’s top distributors and exhibitors, was sealed on Saturday for non-payment of property tax worth over Rs 4 crore.

This follows the sealing of the adjacent Naaz cinema, a piece of Mumbai’s film history, a month ago for the same reason.

Mazda Theatres, the company that owns Naaz, owes the BMC Rs 4.1 crore in property tax.

Sources said Mazda Theatres is in the process of selling the building. This, however, could not be independently confirmed.

The premises was also home to a crèche and Cafe Naaz, a restaurant. While both the crèche and the restaurant shut down a long time ago, the movie theatre screened movies till 2012.

Currently, the compound holds the commercial building, a temple and a school.

On December 3, the BMC issued Mazda Theatres a demand notice of Rs 4.13 crore in pending property tax dues.

The order to seal the theatre was issued by the additional municipal commissioner on February 16 and was executed in the first week of March. On Saturday, the BMC’s assessment and collection department sealed the commercial building’s main entrance.

“As per procedure, when dues were not paid within three weeks, we decided to seal the other building today,” confirmed Assistant Municipal Commissioner, D ward, V P Mote.

Naaz cinema, and the commercial building attached to it, hark back to an era when single screen theatres ruled the scene.

The building houses offices of top distributors and exhibitors, including Sholay producer G P Sippy’s production banner, Mukta Arts’ branch office, Rahul Haksar’s Janta Film Distributors, offices of Ramesh Sippy of Raksha films, N N Sippy’s production house now run by Pravesh Sippy, and Bharat Shah’s distribution company.

“The BMC notice states that the dues are pending for 20 years but the owners kept us in the dark. We have been paying our rent duly along with taxes, it is the owner who has defaulted,” Ramesh Sippy told Mumbai Mirror on Saturday.

A representative of Bharat Shah’s company, who did not wish to be named, said: “The BMC is hand-in-glove. But this time, since they are lagging in collection of property tax, they decided to take action. We have been here for the past 20 years.”

Rajeev Anand, son of R P Anand, who owns the building, said he had replied to the notice issued in December and the matter is now with the Urban Development department. “Why has the BMC suddenly decided to take action? My father is 85 and I am also unwell. Now they are putting pressure on me through the tenants. I need some time.”