The Income Tax department held a massive raid on prominent producers in the Malayalam film industry. The raids that started at around 7.30am on Thursday, continued till 4.30am on Friday.
Income tax officers raided around 50 locations in three states—Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra—that are linked to producers Antony Perumbavoor, actor-producer Prithviraj, Anto Joseph, Listin Stephen, Badushah and Subair for suspected tax evasion. Perumbavoor is a close confidante of superstar Mohanlal. He produced five Mohanlal-starrer films—Bro Daddy, 12th Man, Monster, Drishyam 2 and Alone—this year. 2022 was a massive year for Prithviraj productions. The production company did the distribution of super hit multilingual films like KGF: Chapter 2, 777 Charlie and Kantara in Kerala. The production company produced Jana Gana Mana, Kumari and Gold also. The project design of the film Bro Daddy was also done by Prithviraj Productions.
Sources in the I-T department said that the department has collected some crucial digital evidence from these locations. The department is also looking at the financial transactions of certain distributors and financiers from the industry. The investigation was initiated by the Kerala wing of the IT department. Officers from Tamil Nadu also were involved in the joint operation. The local police were not given prior information about the raid. But an I-T officer who participated in the raids said that the help of local police was sought during the raids.
In December 2021 also the I-T department held raids on producers and stars in Mollywood. The raids were held at premises linked to Prithviraj Productions, Dulquer Salmaan’s Wayfarer Films, Vijay Babu’s Friday Film House, Perumbavoor’s Ashirwad Films, Stephen’s Magic Frames and Anto Joseph Film Company. Perumbavoor, Joseph and Stephen had presented their documents directly in the I-T office then. In January this year, the Enforcement Directorate held a similar raid at actor-producer Unni Mukundan’s house premises on suspicion of money laundering and funding from abroad for producing his debut production Meppadiyan.