Dhamaal rights controversy: The FIR was registered on August 17, 2026, under Sections 318(4) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against Ashok Navalkumar Thakeria and Indra KumarThe police have initiated an investigation into the allegations.
Published: August 19, 2026, 8:15 PM IST
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Dhamaal (PC- Twitter)
A case has been registered against Dhamaal filmmaker Indra Kumar and producer Ashok Navalkumar Thakeria over an alleged Rs 1.50 crore fraud involving the distribution, digital and copyright rights of the hit comedy film Dhamaal.
According to the FIR, Vikas Baldevraj Sahni, 53, owner of Andheri West-based film distribution company Grand Master, has accused Thakeria and Indra Kumar of allegedly misleading his company while selling the rights to the Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Riteish Deshmukh-starrer.
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The FIR was registered on August 17, 2026, under Sections 318(4) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against Ashok Navalkumar Thakeria and Indra KumarThe police have initiated an investigation into the allegations.
As per the complaint, Grand Master entered into an agreement with Maruti International on October 15, 2019, under which it allegedly purchased the worldwide distribution rights, digital rights and copyrights of Dhamaal for ₹1.50 croreSahni has claimed that, at the time of the agreement, the producers assured him that the film’s rights had not been sold to any third party.
However, the complainant alleges that he later discovered that the lifetime OTT and digital rights of Dhamaal had already been sold to Shemaroo Entertainment Limited in 2015—four years before the agreement with Grand Master.
According to the FIR, in January 2020, Ashok Thakeria visited the exhibitor’s office and informed him that Maruti International already had an agreement with Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, under which the rights of the film had been granted to the company for its lifetime.
The complaint further states that Maruti International entered into a supplementary agreement with Shemaroo Entertainment Limited on October 29, 2020, under which the producer retained rights for only one satellite channel.
Meanwhile, Grand Master had applied for the cinematograph copyright of Dhamaal on March 20, 2020The complainant claims that the company possesses a chain of title documents and that the Copyright Office subsequently issued it a copyright certificate, CF-5230/2023, on April 28, 2023.
Sahni has further claimed that Grand Master possesses the government copyright and original negative of the film and has submitted several documents to the police in support of its ownership claim.
The alleged dispute reportedly resulted in Grand Master’s business dealings with several major digital platforms being cancelled, causing the company losses running into crores of rupees, according to the complaint.
The allegations are currently under investigation, and the claims made in the FIR have not been independently established.
(With IANS inputs)
