Sushma seeks details of Mahajan kin’s DD deals

Mahajan, Sushma’s successor, never bothered asking for the list himself, but Arun Jaitley, during his tenure, had just gone ahead and furnished a copy in Parliament.

Sushma must have seen then that little has changed in the four years since she last occupied the I&B chair. Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited, headed by the Big B and a host of directors including Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, owes DD as much as Rs 20.32 crore. Mritunjay Pandey’s Multi-channel has Rs 15 crore pending against its name; Amit Khanna’s Plus Channel owes Rs 4.5 crore; Nimbus Communications run by Harish Thawani Rs 61.2 lakh; and Ronnie Screwwallah’s UTV Rs 60 lakh. And these are names which have been around for quite sometime now. Add to this Asia-Pacific Communication Associates, which owes Rs 60 lakh but continues to produce programmes for DD.

As DD continues to battle for its dues through arbitrators, officials acknowledge the futility of chasing some of the big names in the industry. “It is like bad debts accumulated by banks over the years,” admits a senior official.

However, though officials admit it’s difficult to get money out of these defaulters, they are also hardpressed to explain these companies’ presence everytime a new deal is struck. For instance, when ABCL failed to market the Rangoli show, rather than getting blacklisted for life, the company was allowed to market the Miss World Pageant, with the DD accumulating dues in crores in the process.

A familiar story was repeated when Pritish Nandy Communications, despite owing nearly Rs 4.5 crore, was awarded the rights to market the Olympic games. DD landed with egg on its face and a revenue not worthy of listing on its files. DD also continues to do business with its own wing — National Film Development Corporation — which owes it Rs 29.60 crore.

The fault, according to officials, lies in allowing credit to accumulate. “Accredited advertising agencies enjoy a credit period of two months, after which they come back asking for credit limits to be increased, backed by familiar excuses of the market being unfavourable to them,” says an official. There is also pressure from influential people, mostly politicians, and DD officials are known to crawl when asked to bend.

But there are rare occasions when they do strike back. Like when DD officials mustered enough courage to claim their dues from the Big B. However, he was advised to report `sick’. His emissary/friend Amar Singh tried to thrash out a deal, which is in the process of being worked out.

With the matter before BIFR, DD can just sit and wait now. “Out of Rs 159 crore, we have brought our dues down to Rs 79 crore,” says an official. Some consolation.