The shooting of Sunny Deol's upcoming multi-starrer "Bhaiyyaji Superhit" was halted on Friday after a vigilance team from the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) made a visit to the film's sets regarding alleged non-payment of the federation's members working on the movie.
It has been alleged that "Bhaiyyaji Superhit" producer Mahendra Dhariwal has not paid over Rs. 2 lakh that is due to the members working on the film. "Multiple cheques issued by Dhariwal dated in 2013 and 2014 bounced. Many of federation's members working on his film have not received payments and the total due is over Rs 2 lakh. Hence the vigilance team had gone to his film's set to demand payment. Noncooperation [notice] was issued against him last year in July. But since he has started shooting without clearing the dues, a vigilance team had gone to stall the shoot and demand payment," Mid-Day quoted a source as saying.
While Dhariwal claimed he has already made the payment, he also made a deposit of Rs 2 lakh to the vigilance team. The film's producer and the vigilance team will have a meeting on May 4, where Dhariwal would have to prove he had made the payment earlier.
"We are going to have a meeting on May 4 where Dhariwal has to prove that he has already cleared the workers' payment. If he is unable to do so or doesn't turn up, the money will be distributed among the workers," the report quoted a member of the vigilance team as saying.
Being directed by Neerraj Pathak, "Bhaiyyaji Superhit" features Sunny, Preity Zinta, Ameesha Patel, Mithun Chakraborty and Arshad Warsi, among others. Sunny will reportedly play a gangster who aspires to become an actor.
