'Bharat Shah has not financed Mukta Arts'

Subhash Ghai

It is really very unfortunate that the film industry of creative people is in the grip of a witch hunt and being maligned by a certain section of media.

We see it as a deliberate attempt to prevent the efforts we made to corporatise the industry and protect it from outside pressures. Though we filmmakers fully support this government action (albeit late), of cleaning up the dust prevailing in any industry -- including the Mumbai film industry -- they should have done so long ago, since we could see many of the respected artistes, technicians and business associates living under fear and threats by outside powers for a long time.

The police did give them physical protection, but not mental security.

I can understand that a few might have succumbed to the outside powers to save their own lives. But they are not the whole industry -- just a small section of it.

We at Mukta Arts have put all our sincere efforts into corporatising the entertainment industry for the last 21 years and have successfully gained the confidence of the income tax, banks, insurance, financial institutions, even the capital market, including all those who invested with full faith in our company.

We have been doing our best to institutionalise the film and entertainment business as a whole.

During this course, we hear that a section of media is trying to malign the image of genuine people of this industry. Which is neither fair nor true.

I am shocked and saddened about Bharat Shah's arrest and refuse to believe that a man who conducted his life and business with so much respect and dignity for the last 20 years came under pressure to deal with the underworld -- as claimed by the police. Anyway, the court is the best judge of the truth.

To clear the rumours that Mukta Arts has been financed by Bharat Shah, I must state that Bharat Shah is a non-executive director on the board of Mukta Arts Limited, has neither financed the company in any manner whatsoever nor taken part in the management and the day-to-day working of the company.

However, I may add that we still have high regard and respect for him. I hope and pray for him to come out of the eclipse.