Fraudsters swindling crores from film aspirants after making verbal deals

KOCHI: Several kinds of scams and cheating are taking place under the guise of unaccounted money flowing in the Malayalam cinema industry. Although many scams have taken place even in films that did not reach the theatres, the victims are not ready to take legal action. One such fraud is the one that surfaced through the recent hit movie 'Manjummel Boys'.

Financial scams that prey on young people's acting aspirations are just as widespread as production frauds. According to cinema organisations, the reason for the recurrence of such scams is that the victims cannot file a complaint regarding transactions that take place without any documents or contracts. Rich expats and businessmen are the main victims of these scams. The fraudsters obtain lakhs or crores from the victims by promising partnerships in film production and profit shares.

The producer needs to make only a little investment as he receives money from multiple people. The partner will lose the investment if the film fails at the box office success. Many partners won't get their money back even if the film becomes a success. However, they can't complain as they only made a verbal deal with the producer. It is alleged that fraudsters, who deceive people who come with ambitions in acting, screenwriting and cinematography, are receiving support from some technical workers in the film industry.