ED grills Liger’s director, co-producer for 12 hours: Report

Vijay Deverakonda-starrer ‘Liger,’ which after failing to live up to expectations at the box office, is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, on November 17, questioned movie director Puri Jagannadh and co-producer Charmme Kaur for alleged FEMA violations.

Liger hit the theatres on August 25 in five languages across the globe, however, opened to poor reviews and crashed miserably at the box office.

In August, Congress leader Bakka Judson had filed a complaint saying that politicians invested money in Liger in an attempt to turn their black money into white. ED officials, following the complaint, began the investigation.

Reportedly, Puri Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur were asked to appear before ED 15 days ago. According to a media report, the makers of the liger were questioned for almost 12 hours. They appeared before the ED on November 17 and were grilled over Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations.

ED suspects that crores of money came from foreign countries as well. The two were asked to provide proof of the sources of income for Liger.

Puri Jagannath and Deverakonda’s next movie ‘Jana Gana Mana’ has officially been scrapped after the actor backed out of the project owing to Liger’s failure.

Liger was made on a budget of Rs 120 crore (approx). The film features Vijay Deverakonda, Ananya Panday and Ramya Krishna in lead roles. Boxing legend Mike Tyson was roped in for an explosive cameo in the film. Liger, which marks Telugu star Vijay Deverakonda's Bollywood debut, was backed by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions.

Jagannadh and Deverakonda have collaborated again for the upcoming action film 'Jana Gana Mana', which was announced before the release of ‘Liger’. As per the reports, the film has officially been scrapped after the actor backed out of the project owing to Liger’s failure.