Ramgopal Varma may have had reason to celebrate recently, after a very long gap. His 'Phoonk' finally brought a smile on the faces of his distributors who had been making losses in one after the other of his films. But the filmmaker’s joy, it seems, was shortlived. No, it isn’t as if the box-office result of the horror flick, 'Phoonk', has changed. What must’ve taken away the smile from Ramu’s lips is the complaint filed by financier Bharat Shah in IMPPA (Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Associa­tion) against Ramu.
In the complaint, the well-known financier has sought recovery of Rs. 25 crore from Varma. Shah has alleg­ed that Ramu’s Varma Corpora­tion Ltd. continued to do business but did not return the amount of Rs. 25 crore due to him (Shah). The financier has claimed that he had invested huge sums of money in Ram­gopal Varma’s 'Satya', 'Mast' and 'Jungle'.

According to the aggrieved financier, Ramgopal Varma had promised him shares worth Rs. 10 crore in his company which he was planning to get listed on the Bombay stock exchange. The paperwork for this was also done, it is reported. However, to Bharatbhai Shah’s horror, Ramu or his company did not issue any shares but continued giving false commitments.

Shah has requested IMPPA to settle his claim and recover his dues from Ramgopal Varma.

It may be mentioned here that not too long ago, Varma and T-Series were battling it out in the court of law. Ulti­mately, the warring parties settled their disputes out of court. The Shah-Varma dispute hasn’t reached the courts as yet al­though the disputed amount is huge. But if a settlement doesn’t take place soon, one can expect more fireworks in the courts.

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