OTT platforms have proliferated at a rate no one ever imagined, a few years ago and now these platforms serve latest content day in and day out. While some of them have earned the reputation of being the biggest in the industry with content nonpareil, others have meandered towards making content that is just degrading, grossly dirty.
Actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra has recently been arrested due to his connections with some of these OTT platforms that showcased pornographic content under the garb of short films. Yes, you read that right. NEWS18 reported, Kundra was arrested on Monday night by the Mumbai police who stated that the case was filed in the month of February 2021 and that Kundra was the “Key conspirator” in the matter. They have also revealed that they have sufficient evidence against the businessman who was arrested after several hours of investigation.
The Commissioner of Mumbai police Hemant Nagrale stated, “There was a case registered with Crime Branch Mumbai in February 2021 about creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. We’ve arrested Mr Raj Kundra in this case on 19/7/21 as he appears to be the key conspirator of this. We have sufficient evidences regarding this. Investigation is in progress.”
Besides Kundra 10 others have been arrested in the case so far. I t was not long before that the Property Cell of the Mumbai Police recently busted a gang that was involved in making porn videos under the pretext of producing short films for OTT (over-the-top) platforms. They had also taken actor Gehana Vasisth under arrest along with eight others in the case.
The crime branch further stated that after the shoot of these porn videos, the accused used to send them to a foreign company using ‘WeTransfer’ and then they would be uploaded on these various OTT platforms to fool the Indian law. It was during the investigation that the Mumbai police arrested a man who identified as Umesh Kamath, who was also an aide of Kundra. It was after his arrest Kundra’s key role in the porn racket came to the fore, but due to the lack of evidence Kundra wasn’t arrested then.
Another officer from the crime branch stated, ““Our team worked on it closely after filing the first charge sheet in the case. During the probe, we found that the accused, in fact, sent WeTransfer files abroad sitting in Kundra’s office.”
The crime branch also revealed that initially these production houses would lure newbie actors by assuring them meaty roles in films but would later make them do porn instead. Sources informed NEWS18 that that accused used to earn Rs 2-3 lakh per video and the victims were just paid Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000.
Umesh Kamath who was earlier arrested by the property cell of the Mumbai crime branch was the managing director of VIAAN industries in which Kundra is the chairman and non-executive director. the report further states that the Mumbai crime branch also arrested a Surat based C-Grade filmmaker Tanvir Hashmi alias Tan on 10th February 2021. Tan had so far directed 8 such films and he used his contacts to trick aspiring actors into pornography. The report also states that during the robe it was also found that he shot pornographic videos and sent them to the UK based company called Kernin Limited through Kamath.
The OTT apps on which these porn videos used to be uploaded through foreign IPs were HotShot, Nuefliks, HotHit and escapenow.tv. The police has also seized Rs 5.68 Lakhs worth equipment which were used to shoot porn videos in a bungalow.