Amid a controversy over the shutting down of the Jollywood Studios located on a 50-acre property in the Bidadi region of the new Bengaluru South district over alleged violation of pollution norms, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached a property worth Rs 42.45 lakh belonging to a managing director of a firm that operated the studio earlier. The ED announced Thursday that it had attached the 1114.5 sq feet property under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, “in a case related to fraudulent accounting practices committed by M/s Innovative Studios Private Limited under Section 447 of the Companies Act, 2013.” The property was reported to belong to Saravana Prasad, a former managing director and key shareholder of the firm Innovative Studios Pvt Ltd. The firm was awarded the 50-acre land at Bidadi in 2006 to create a film city by a JD(S)-BJP government headed by current Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy. “Investigations revealed that during the financial year 2015–16, M/s Innovative Studios Pvt. Ltd. fraudulently declared expenditure amounting to Rs. 1.49 Crore in the names of M/s Amogha Enterprises and M/s Milae Technocraft LLP,” the ED said in a statement. “Out of this, an amount of approximately Rs. 1.02 Crore was shown as paid in cash against fictitious expenditure, thereby generating Proceeds of Crime (POC) to the tune of Rs. 1.02 Crore. ED investigation revealed that Saravana Prasad, Managing Director of the company at the relevant time, was the key decision-maker and was responsible for the fraudulent transactions,” the statement further said. “Since the POC generated in cash could not be traced, and it was established that Saravana Prasad was the key decision-maker and ultimate beneficiary, an immovable property in his name – Flat No. MIG 22/129, Domlur II Stage, Bengaluru, measuring approximately 1114.5 sq. ft., purchased in 2020 for Rs. 42.45 Lakh, has been identified as an equivalent value to POC as described in Section 2(1)u of PMLA,2002, and provisionally attached under Section 5(1) of PMLA, 2002,” the ED stated. Innovative Studios failed to build the film city or develop real estate as it was contracted to do by investors and went into liquidation due to debts of over Rs 100 crore in 2019. The film city project was later taken over by its current owners, Vels Studios and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, with the aid of the Chennai-based film firm Suresh Productions Entertainment LLP, after acceptance of a compromise scheme for revival of the film city by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in 2020. The shutting down of the Jollywood Studios in Bidadi on October 7 had caused a furore in Karnataka on account of the property being the location for the shooting of the Kannada Bigg Boss series. The studio, which is a tourist attraction as well, was shut down by the Bengaluru South district officials after it allegedly failed to comply with issues raised since 2024 by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. The studio was shut down on October 7 but reopened on October 9 after Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar asked the district administration to allow the reopening. The Opposition Janata Dal (Secular) party – during whose tenure in 2006 the land grant was made to the Innovative Studios for setting up a film city – had alleged on social media on October 8 that it was the Karnataka deputy CM who had influenced the closure of the studio. The original film city proposal at Bidadi Originally, Innovative Studios had proposed the creation of a film city at Bidadi in 2005 during the tenure of the Congress-JD(S) government headed by Dharam Singh. Innovative Studios was supposed to build a mini city comprising film studios, a film institute, multiplexes, entertainment zones and a residential project on 13 acres out of the 50 acres that it would be allotted. The plan was approved by the government on March 21, 2005. Subsequently, after the Congress-JD(S) government fell in 2006 and a JD(S)-BJP government was formed with H D Kumaraswamy as CM in February 2006, the government executed (through the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board) two lease-cum-sale agreements in the Bidadi area on February 23, 2006, and September 4, 2006, to give land to Innovative Studios. The current controversy over pollution norm violations by Jollywood Studios in Bidadi and the ED attachment of properties of the former MD of Innovative Studios has come at a time when Union Minister Kumaraswamy and the JD(S) have been locked in a battle with Shivakumar in the Bengaluru South district (previously Ramanagara) over a Bidadi township project. The Karnataka deputy CM has faced protests in recent weeks by farmers rallied by the Opposition JD(S) against a proposed Rs 20,000 crore township at Bidadi in the Bengaluru South district. The project was initially proposed by the JD(S) when it was in power in 2007, but was dropped after opposition from farmer groups. “You (Shivakumar) are making a mistake, and you will face the consequences. For your actions, you may even face imprisonment. This government has only two years left. I know what will happen after that. Do not harass farmers simply because someone has ordered you to,” Kumaraswamy said recently.
