In 2020, Netflix released Bad Boy Billionaires: India, an investigative docu-series that focused on the country’s infamous business tycoons, including Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. You’d agree that their meteoric rise in their respective fields, followed by their fraud cases, make for a riveting story for the big screen.

So, it’s not surprising that Karthik K — who has served as associate director to S Shankar on Sivaji (2007) and 2.0 (2018) — is helming a movie focusing on the financial scams of Mallya, Modi and Mehul Choksi, who have been the subjects of extradition efforts by the Indian government.

Titled File No 323, it will mark Karthik’s directorial debut. “Many films have been made on underworld fugitives, but our movies haven’t explored [the real-life stories] of economic fugitives who take loans from Indian banks, escape to foreign climes to live on happily. File No 323 is based on the lives of Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi. The film [depicts] how we’re struggling to bring such economic fugitives back,” he says.

To be made in Hindi and other regional languages, the movie will have an added emphasis on Mallya’s money-laundering and debt scam. Karthik says the narrative will be a dramatised version of events. “We want to be credible, but at the same time, it cannot be preachy. [We have done extensive research], from talking to journalists who followed these cases, to [meeting] people in the Enforcement Directorate.”

He informs that the cast will include stars from Bollywood and south film industry. The big-budget drama — produced by Vakil Khan, Kalol Das, Mihir Mutta and Prateebha Vyas — will kick off in Mumbai on November 20, and will be shot across the UK and parts of Europe.