Is KriArj Entertainment crumbling? What’s the story behind the film production company which entered Bollywood in a big way with Akshay Kumar’s Rustom in 2016 suddenly being in the news for all the wrong reasons?
KriArj, which was started by Prerna Arora and Arjun Kapoor, had a good run after Rustom with Toilet: Ek Prem Katha in 2017 and then PadMan in 2018. Its troubles began with Kedarnath, Sara Ali Khan’s debut film slated for release in December, after director and co-producer Abhishek Kapoor served KriArj a termination notice following all sorts of alleged trouble with Prerna and her production house. At the time, Kedarnath is still in limbo but Sara fortunately has been snapped up by Karan Johar and Rohit Shetty for Simmba opposite Ranveer Singh.
Even while this was happening, came allegations about Anushka Sharma’s March release Pari not being promoted by co-producer KriArj and about Prerna supposedly owing the third producer, Kyta Productions, money. This was followed by John Abraham and his production company JA Entertainment filing a termination notice against co-producer KriArj for non-payment over the actor’s Pokhran nuclear tests thriller Parmanu. John and Prerna are now locked in a legal battle over the release of the film in May.
The latest spot of trouble for KriArj comes in the shape and form of the Shahid Kapoor-Shraddha Kapoor starrer Batti Gul Meter Chalu under production in the north. A story in an online Bollywood media site claims that the shooting of Batti Gul Meter Chalu has been stalled the reason being that KriArj has failed to make production payments.
Further, the online site says that the hotel at which the crew and cast was accommodated is now locked down. The owner has taken custody of all the belongings and property of the shoot from location. The crew is now stranded. Shahid has decided to stay put in Mumbai till the problem is solved. The actor was banking on Batti Gul Meter Chalu to return to the screen after the stupendous success of Padmaavat.
Unconfirmed sources say that the actor has not received his full payment and neither have Shraddha and Yami Gautam who also stars in the film. Also, there are allegations of bounced cheques.
