Barely a day after Times of India carried a report about the ‘record-breaking collections’ of Dookudu, the sleuths from Income Tax Department descended on the offices of producers of the film.
The ToI report said that Dookudu collected “101 crore in its collections worldwide, in an unprecedented 50-day run at the BO. The significance of the feat can be measured by the fact that SRK’s Ra. One, currently stands third in the pecking order of highest grossing Bollywood films ever, with a net gross of `112,74,00,000”.
That seems to have given enough hints to the taxmen as producers have to shell out 11 percent VAT of the box office collections. That would be in the range of Rs 11 crore.
Income Tax officials on Monday searched the offices and residences of the producers – Anil Sukara, Ram and Gopi Achanta. The officials reportedly seized daily collection reports and other receipts in the raids.
For the producers, who have already been reeling under the onslaught of Chiru fans for allegedly inflating their figures, these raids are another shock. It may be recalled that Megastar’s fans threw a challenge in Andhra Jyothi advertisement that they will pay up Rs 2 crore, if anybody could prove that Dookudu could cross Magadheera in collections.
The latest development is a lesson to the bigwigs of industry that creating hype around a film is one thing, but inflating collection figures is another!
