Director-Producer Vikram Bhatt has been hit by an alleged breach of trust and data theft, prompting the Versova Police to register a case against two employees of his production house, VSB Production LLP. The accused individuals, identified as Jitendra Sharma and Rakesh Pranigrahi, allegedly sold hard discs and misused mobile phones belonging to the company for personal monetary gain.
The high-profile case highlights a severe risk of data security and intellectual property theft within the film industry, with the missing media reportedly containing raw movie footage.
The matter came to light when filmmaker Vikram Bhatt, known for horror and thriller hits like Raaz starring Emraan Hashmi, 1920, and Haunted, along with his wife Shwetambri Bhatt, noticed a concerning pattern of missing hard discs from their Andheri West office starting around March 2025.
According to the FIR filed by Production Manager Nasir Khan on October 10, the production house’s internal investigation eventually pointed fingers at two individuals:
- Rakesh Pranigrahi, the account manager, was the first person the Bhatts suspected.
- Jitendra Sharma, who reported to Pranigrahi, was found to be controlling the distribution of the hard discs.
Staff members reported that while they previously accessed the discs with Pranigrahi’s approval, Sharma began making excuses and refusing to hand them over in the preceding two months. The disappearing media contained confidential raw footage of the company’s film projects, raising alarms over potential leaks and commercial damage.
The investigation escalated in September 2025 when an executive assistant, Mohit Kumar, directly questioned Jitendra Sharma about the missing media. Sharma reportedly confessed to selling the hard discs to a person named Ashok Krush.
Sharma stated that he sold up to 10 hard discs, with each one fetching between ₹5,000 to ₹6,000. Crucially, the confession alleged that the sales were made on Rakesh Pranigrahi’s orders, with the proceeds being split between the two accused.
Following this revelation, both Sharma and Pranigrahi immediately stopped reporting to work. They also failed to return company-owned mobile phones, further cementing the grounds for a criminal complaint.
Based on the complaint filed by the production house, the Versova Police registered a case against Jitendra Sharma and Rakesh Pranigrahi. The police have invoked relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including charges for criminal breach of trust.
Police officials have begun the search for the two accused individuals and are working to recover the stolen hard discs and confidential footage. The illegal sale of hard discs containing raw film data is a severe offense that compromises the intellectual property and commercial viability of a production company’s entire project.
The incident serves as a stark reminder to all creative and business enterprises about the urgent need to implement robust data management protocols and enhance security measures against internal fraud and intellectual property theft. The film industry, in particular, relies heavily on data integrity, and a breach of this nature poses an existential threat to film projects. As the investigation continues, the focus remains on apprehending the accused and recovering the sensitive film footage before it can be further misused.
