Neerja Bhanot’s Family Flouting Contract & Demanding More Money: Atul Kasbekar

After members of Neerja's family threatened to drag the makers of the biopic to court yesterday, Neerja producer Atul Kasbekar retorts back with a heart-wrenching post on social media

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Neerja Bhanot’s Family Flouting Contract & Demanding More Money: Atul Kasbekar

Atul Kasbekar has finally spoken up. The head of Bling Entertainment, which produced Neerja (2016), has put forth a post on social media blasting the family of Neerja Bhanot. Not just that, he even brings to notice the fact that now that the movie has done well at the box-office, the Bhanots are now demanding much more money than stated in their contract. Check out his statement below:

atul kasbekar producer of neerja movie
Atul Kasbekar Producer Of Neerja

Statement from Bling Unplugged, co-producers of the motion picture: 'Neerja'

At the outset, again, we'd like to say that we are immensely grateful that the Bhanot family trusted us with making a movie on the life of braveheart, Neerja Bhanot.

We started the exercise of making a difficult film with utmost honesty and the effusive acclaim the film has received is testament to the fact that we succeeded in our endeavour.

The facts of the case are simply thus:

Bling had acquired the rights to make 'Neerja' from the Bhanot family. The agreement between Bhanots and Bling clearly spelt out that Bhanots would be paid a fixed upfront amount (which was paid as per the timelines) and a variable amount, which was to be computed as a share of net profits that Bling would receive.

It was always abundantly clear that we would partner with a studio, in this case FoxStar India. 

The Bhanot family was always aware of the same and have in fact met the studio reps on many occasions. 

To imply otherwise is simply untrue.

Integrity is a very important aspect of Bling's values and Bling is committed to meeting all its contractual commitments.

All financial transactions post release have been shared with the Bhanot family immediately and in a transparent manner.

Their share of the profits, which is a share of ours, has been immediately offered.

They have declined to accept the same and now wish to get a share of the studio profits. 

This is effectively a retrospective negotiation and not as per what is signed by them years ago.

It is unfortunate that despite having a clear contractual arrangement the Bhanots have decided to dispute the financial understanding at this belated stage.

To reiterate, the amounts due to the Bhanots, as per the existing contract have been repeatedly offered by us to them.

To imply anything otherwise, is simply untrue.

Sincerely
Atul Kasbekar

CMD
Bling Entertainment





For those who've come in late, the Bhanot family had threatened to drag the producers of the Sonam Kapoor starrer film to the court yesterday. Even though they didn't let out details of the case, Neerja's brother Aneesh had quipped, “I will not comment on this issue at this stage. All I can tell you is that we will not tolerate injustice.”


Sonam Kapoor In A Still From Neerja

All we can say is that it's not heartening to see the makers of such a beautiful film (Neerja) be at loggerheads with the members of the family who gave them the rights to make a film on one of India's topmost braveheart. May this animosity end! 


Image Source: youtube/foxstarhindi & twitter/sonamkapoor