On Wednesday, 3 March, the Income Tax department conducted raids at Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap's properties, reported ANI. Searches were also conducted at filmmaker Vikas Bahl's properties and at KWAN, a talent management company. The income tax department said on Thursday that it found discrepancy and manipulation of income during the searches at various places linked to actor Tapsee Pannu, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and his partners who launched the now shuttered production house Phantom Films. There was also huge suppression of income compared to the actual box office collections, the IT department further said.
Giving details about the searches, the officials said that the production house staff was not able to explain discrepancy of around ₹300 crore. The officials also said that they found evidence related to manipulation and under-valuation of share transactions of Phantom Films amongst the film directors and shareholders, having tax implication of about ₹350 crore. Evidence of cash receipts by the leading actress amounting to ₹5 crore has also been recovered as per a Hindustan Times report. The officials added that further investigation is on. The searches, part of a tax evasion probe against Phantom Films, were carried out across 30 locations in Mumbai and Pune on Wednesday. Properties linked with Reliance Entertainment group CEO Shibhasish Sarkar and some executives of celebrity and talent management companies KWAN and Exceed were also raided. The others searched include some Phantom Films production house employees, which was dissolved in 2018, director-producer Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Vikas Bahl and producer-distributor Madhu Mantena.Both Pannu and Kashyap, who are shooting in Pune, were also questioned by the income tax officials. They are collaborating in the upcoming film "Dobaara".
Notably, Kwan Talent Management Agency‘s name has appeared in high profile cases in recent times. After the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in 2020, several aspects of the case were investigated. During the investigation, evidence of excessive usage of narcotics in Bollywood led to an investigation by NCB. In September 2020, the CEO of Kwan was summoned by Narcotics Control Bureau in connection to cases related to drug usage in Bollywood.