The central government took cognizance of the alleged corruption in the CBFC on Friday and initiated an inquiry into the claim by Tamil actor Vishal that he paid ₹6.5 lakh bribe to obtain censor certification of the Hindi version of his film ‘Mark Antony’. The information and broadcasting ministry said senior officials have been deputed to probe further on the “unfortunate” issue of corruption brought forth by actor Vishal.
The ministry called the charge "extremely unfortunate", professed "zero tolerance" for corruption and asked others who may have been harassed to provide details. "The government has zero tolerance for corruption and strictest action will be taken against anyone involved. A senior officer... has been deputed to Mumbai to conduct an inquiry today itself," the post on X said.
At 6 PM last evening Vishal uploaded a nearly four-minute long video addressed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the accompanying post he named two individuals from the censor board and shared details of online bank transfers. He claimed he sent ₹ 3 lakh to the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank account of M Rajan and ₹ 3.5 lakh to a Kotak Mahendra Bank account belonging to Jeeja Ramdas. Both accounts are in Mumbai.
My hard-earned money has gone for corruption... I am not doing this for me or my film, but for future producers. Have been thinking only of what others may have to go through for their films."Vishal concluded with a message to Mr Shinde and Prime Minister Modi, explaining that he had the evidence to back his claims and hoped that action would be taken. "My honourable PM has always stood against corruption... all political leaders say they do... and this is corruption."