‘Indrani Mukerjea owes me Rs 35 lakhs for my show’: JD Majethia recalls how her ‘behaviour changed, she became rude’

In 2007, Indrani Mukerjea co-founded INX Media along with her ex-husband Peter Mukerjea. However, in 2009, she stepped down as the CEO and sold the company.

JD Majethia recalls his work experience with Indrani Mukerjea. (Photo: JD Majethia/Indrani Mukerjea/Instagram)

Indrani Mukerjea became a sensational name after she was charged as the main accused in the alleged murder of her daughter Sheena Bora in 2015. Just about eight years before the incident, Indrani had co-founded INX Media with her ex-husband Peter Mukerjea. During this time, she associated with several producers including JD Majethia for curating shows for her channel. Just two years later, Indrani and Peter stepped down from their management roles, making several producers go through financial loss.

In a recent interview, actor-producer-director JD Majethia recalled a horrifying experience he went through during his association with Indrani Mukerjea, who according to him, still owes him about Rs 35 lakh. Talking about producers going through financial losses, JD recounted, “My experience with 9X is very specific. They are very famous people: Peter Mukerjea and Indrani. I was doing a show for them: Remote Control. It was a weekly show, and it did well for them. Three weeks into the show, Indrani called me and said, ‘Let’s make this a daily show.’ I was like, ‘No, I don’t think so’. Indrani was like, ‘What are you saying JD. If it was any other producer, he wouldn’t have let go of this opportunity.’ I said, ‘It is not about the opportunity, the show’s content is not meant for daily show. People will get tired of this and this will come to and end in a few months if we turn it into a daily show.'”

JD shared how he convinced her to let his show be a weekly thing. “She got upset. We did that show for almost a year–about 52 episodes. Later, she requested if I could at least increase the show’s duration to one hour. I agreed to it.”

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While things went smooth during the first season of the show, JD noticed a sheer change in Indrani’s attitude towards him when they kickstarted the second season of the show.

JD shared, “She stopped paying us after we started the second season. She didn’t pay us for over four months, everybody’s payments stopped. They stopped answering or meeting us. As a producer, I paid my team on time because they were all my friends who were working — Supriya Pathak, Deven Bhojani, Mansi Parekh, Jai Soni, Sooraj Thapar. I paid them all. By this time, Indrani owed me about Rs 70 lakh. I waited but they never paid.”

“One day, I went and showed them the receipts of all the payments. Indrani and Peter were together. Indrani changed her behaviour towards me. She became extremely rude. I lost it. I yelled at her. I said, ‘Don’t talk to me like this. I don’t owe you money. You owe me money. And then you talk to me like this?’ Peter got concerned and he tried to console me. But Indrani never cared.”

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After that incident, Indrani totally ignored JD. “Their accountant spoke to me then they brought a big journalist and started to make settlement talks. I was like, ‘What settlement? I have paid all my artistes. I can’t do settlement here.’ I refused to take settlement amount as I had already paid all my actors. Eventually, they sold the company to a different management and they wanted NOC from me, I didn’t give it to them. After a lot of arguments, they eventually paid me Rs 50 lakh, but I still underwent a loss of Rs 30 to 35 lakh.”

JD treats the entire incident as his biggest lesson. “I have heard they have a lot of money and properties in Spain. I hope they pay me.” Speaking about their downfall and all the controversies, JD added, “However, karma taught them a lesson. Peter was very inspiring person. I am not here to say who is right or who is wrong. All I know is they didn’t pay my money. I was very mad at them.”

Remote Control was a weekly, comic, middle-class family drama which ran from 2008 to 2009. It was a lighthearted portrayal of family life and was a popular show during its run.

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