Police complaint filed against Sunny Deol for cheating, forgery and extortion

Bollywood actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol has found himself in the centre of a financial scandal, with film producer Sorav Gupta making accusations of cheating, extortion, and forgery, as per Hindustan Times. The filmmaker has now filed a police complaint against the actor. 

“The police issued [Deol] a notice on April 30. His office sent a letter saying he was out of town on the day he was to present himself,” he confirmed to the publication. 

Gupta, a real-estate developer-turned producer, alleged that he signed Deol on as the lead for a project in 2016, and agreed to pay a total of INR40 million. In a press conference, Gupta asserted that the actor had been paid an advance for the film, but then abandoned his commitments without returning the money.

“We gave him INR10 million in advance, but instead of starting my film, he opted to shoot for Poster Boys (2017) instead,” Gupta told Hindustan Times. “He kept asking for money, by now, [I have paid] INR25.5 million into Sunny’s account. He also made me give money to another director, book Filmistaan studio, and get an executive producer.”

Gupta asserted that Deol continued to take money without working on his film, which has never come to fruition. According to him, Deol promised he would start work on Gupta’s project, but did not respond after the commercial success of Gadar 2 (2023)  in which the actor played a major role. 

In addition, Gupta went on the allege that Deol had made unwarranted changes to the agreement with his company in in 2023. “We saw that he increased his fees from INR40 million to INR80 million and increased his profit to INR20 million,” he stated.

Filmmaker Suneel Darshan, known for his work on Janwar (1999) and Andaaz (2003) backed up Gupta’s claims at the same press conference and noted that he, too, had faced similar financial struggles when working with Deol. 

“Sunny Deol acquired rights from my movie Ajay (1999) for overseas distribution and only made a partial payment,” alleged Darshan. “The balance payment never came through. Later, Sunny requested me to work on a project with him, saying, ‘Have faith in me, help me out,’ and got me to pay him again.” 

Adding fuel to the fire, an anonymous source within the film industry said that Deol had been a “known troublemaker” for years. The source claimed that Deol signed on to a film titled Ram Janmbhumi for an agreed amount of INR50 million leading a producer to create a large set in Mumbai. “Later, he [Deol] refused to come to the sets and demanded a fee of INR250 million because he had delivered a blockbuster (Gadar 2),” claimed the source. 

Deol was approached for comment but remained unavailable. A newcomer to Bollywood in 1983, Deol enjoyed success as an action hero before his career took a downturn in the early 2000s. However, Deol has enjoyed a resurgence since Gadar 2, the highest-grossing film of his career. 

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