Mahesh Bhatt's offices raided, scripts recovered, movie maker placed under arrest

In a major crackdown against producers\directors making movies without a valid script, Mahesh Bhatt’s offices and his residence were raided by Censor Board officials early morning today. The pre-dawn swoop  yielded many well-concealed scripts and incriminating documents. The director has been placed under judicial custody and charged under sections 306 (making movies without a plot) 307.53 (Abusing\not using valid script for movies) and 309 (conspiracy to hide scripts).

The raids were carried out by a flying squad of the board after complaints were received by it against directors and producers shooting movies without a valid script. Sources say that a record number of 567 complaints were received against Bhatt and his team and the board had already decided to make an example out of the ‘accomplished’ director.

That's Mahesh Bhatt

In several past instances, whenever the board asked Bhatt to furnish a script, the latter chickened out giving all kinds of excuses including “our cow ate the script that was lying unattended in my bedroom”. Now what a cow was doing in Bhatt’s bedroom can be the subject of another post, but for now let’s concentrate on what Bhatt said after he was arrested. “This is a conspiracy by forces inimical to my rise in the industry and those who have reasons to be jealous of my success. I have always worked with scripts and it is my humble belief that movies which are shot without scripts are like those lizards on the wall- you never know when they fall. Besides lizards never lay eggs while they are on the wall,” he said, sounding philosophical. Bhatt also didn’t rule out a deep seated conspiracy to malign him.

The raid unearthed scripts belonging to movies produced by Bhatt’s production house since the early 90s. Many scripts were hidden under a false ceiling whereas one was hidden inside a copy of Das Kapital. The scripts have been sealed and taken to a unknown location for safekeeping.

Meanwhile, Bhatt's arrested triggered panic among movie makers in Mumbai. It is a well known secret that  a majority of film makers here shoot movies without a valid script. "I am scared I could be next or it could be Yash (Chopra), Subash (Ghai) or even  Karan (Johar) many of these film makers see the script only once before the shoot commences and then it is discarded. In fact some directors have converted the whole process of discarding a script into a formal ritual," a leading film maker said.