Celebrity physiotherapist booked for cheating film producer in Mumbai

Dr Ali Irani, celebrity physiotherapist, said they are in the process of filing a defamation suit against the accused. Pic/Instagram

Celebrity physiotherapist Dr Ali Irani and another person have been booked by Amboli police for allegedly cheating a film producer. Dr Irani and the other accused, Mehmood Ali, had allegedly assured producer Vijay Mulchandani of Rs 1.25 crore for his movie rights but did not hand over the money, and instead sold the rights to Rajshri Productions for Rs 15 lakh, the complainant claimed.

Both the accused, however, claimed that it was Mulchandani who did not fulfill the terms and conditions of their deal and was harassing them.

Mulchandani in the complaint said that he produced a film named #Yaram, which was released in October 2019. He said he wanted the movie on OTT platforms as well and hence met Dr Irani and Ali, owner of Don Infotainment. A deal was worked out between the two parties and Don had allegedly offered Rs 1.25 crore for the rights of the movie. Accordingly, the movie was released on the OTT platform in March 2020.

The producer claimed that the accused did not give him the money ever after the release and added that the accused had cited financial issues during lockdown when he checked with them. After a long wait, a meeting was set in January 2021. Mulchandani claimed a cheque dated February 19 was given to him but it bounced. He has claimed that he was given several cheques which have bounced since. In June 2021, after two cheques bounced, he learnt from the bank that the account holders had shut their account in March that year.

Meanwhile, Rajshri Productions released a public notice asking if anybody had objection over the rights of #Yaaram. Mulchandani then got in touch with the company and learnt that Dr Irani and Ali had sold the movie rights for Rs 15 lakh. Following this, he lodged a complaint with the police.

The other side

Advocate Ali Kaashif Khan, for the accused, said "It is a plain contractual civil case where major liabilities and duties were not fulfilled by the complainant himself, yet certain payments were duly done to him by my clients. The complainant, in order to harass my clients, has filed several baseless proceedings in several courts including arbitration, cheque bounce, and now the present FIR. I am also in possession of an audio clip where the complainant is abusing and threatening my client."

Ali said, "Mulchandani himself had approached us to release his film on our OTT platform, but he didn't perform his own obligations as per agreements terms and is now crying foul to garner cheap publicity. He even misused the cheques given by me for security purposes."

"I had not even signed any cheques. The complainant has misused the cheques given by my partner as security and deposited the same without permission. He only intends to extort money from us. We will prove our stance before the court of law and are already in the process of filing a defamation suit for damages," said Dr Ali.

Police speak

"We have registered an FIR against Dr Irani and Ali," said an officer from Amboli police station. mid-day reached out to Mulchandani, but he refused to comment.

Rs 1.25crore
Amount agreed upon for the film rights