Kollywood’s big shots in shock after multiple IT raids

On Tuesday, the Tamil film industry was in for a jolt when the Income Tax department conducted simultaneous raids at the properties of some of the most noted producers of Kollywood.

Kalaipuli S Thanu, the producer of Rajinikanth’s ‘Kabali’ and Venkatesh’s ‘Naarappa’, was one of them. SR Prabhu, KE Ganavelraja (who is both a producer and a distributor) and Sathyajyothi Thiagarajan are also named by media reports.

Kollywood’s biggest financier Anbu Chezhian, too, came in for raids. His properties in Chennai and Madurai came under the radar. Anbu is a one-man industry as far as film financing is concerned and rarely a production is done without procuring loans from him in Tamil. This is not the first time Anbu is being subjected to raids. “Reportedly, nearly Rs 77 Cr worth of income was found with Anbu’s assets during raids in 2020,” Times Of India said in a report.

It is reported that the aforementioned names are currently bankrolling big-ticket projects such as ‘Pathu Thala’, ‘Chiyaan 61’, ‘Captain Miller’, ‘Vaadivaasal’, Sharwanand’s ‘Oke Oka Jeevitham’, ‘Bhola’ and ‘Suriya 43’, among others.