DNA (December 20, 2018)

Even as producer Prernaa Arora hopes to get bail today in the case filed against her by Vashu Bhagnani, she still won’t be able to go home yet. Once her police custody in this matter ends, she is likely to be arrested again as there are three cheating cases against her registered with the EOW (Economic Offences Wing). Moreover, arrest warrant has also been issued against her mother Protima Arora.

Earlier this Monday, the Toilet - Ek Prem Katha, Pad Man and Pari producer, who was allegedly arrested for duping Bhagnani and his company, Pooja Films, to the tune of Rs 31.6 crore, told the Mumbai Police that she couldn’t repay her investors as her company KriArj Entertainment suffered big losses. Currently in police remand till today (December 20), Prernaa has three cheating cases, the total of which amounts to Rs 65.9 cr.

Meanwhile, both, Protima and Prernaa’s business partner Arjun N Kapoor, were reportedly not at their respective residences when the cops reached there. Last heard, they hadn’t been arrested.

Interestingly, industry sources say that the producer, who began her innings with Rustom and got into financial trouble earlier this year when her collaborations like Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran, Fanney Khan, Batti Gul Meter Chalu and Kedarnath came to a halt, was apparently advised to take stock of her situation, but she didn’t heed the warnings. According to an industry source, “Prernaa had taken about Rs 50 crore from Vashu, promising him first claim on her film, even though she had given away the rights to another organisation. After much delay, she settled about Rs 18 cr and apparently kept on procrastinating settling the remaining amount. After she repeatedly failed to deposit Rs 5 cr as ordered by the court in the Parmanu matter, Vashu reportedly felt she was harassing him and he finally decided to go the legal route to get recover his money.”

Elaborating on the losses she suffered, our informer adds, “Prernaa suffered a big loss of over Rs 20 cr from two films. Add to that, she was spreading herself too thin, inking multiple co-productions when she should have waited for those films under-production to complete and release. She had paid about Rs 8 cr to Vishal Bhardwaj for their collaboration, and between Rs 2.5 cr and Rs 3 cr each to Siddharth Anand and Ahmed Khan. Since those films didn’t materialise for various reasons, a filmmakers’ association advised her to ask her money back from them and settle part of her dues with Vashu. But she didn’t take it too seriously, and that’s also escalated to the amount she owes her investors. Now, today’s will determine her next course of action.”

We tried contacting Prernaa’s lawyer, Rizwan Merchant for their side of the story, but he was in court and couldn’t respond till the time of going to press.