A major data theft case has come to light from filmmaker Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s production house Tiger Baby Digital LLP. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, 66 hard disks containing important production material have reportedly gone missing from the company’s Bandra office. Some of these drives reportedly contained unreleased footage and work-in-progress material, making the matter serious for the production house.
Shocking: 66 hard disks containing Made in Heaven, Ghost Stories and unreleased footage go missing from Zoya Akhtar-Reema Kagti’s Tiger Baby office; The employee allegedly sold the drives for Rs. 15,000-20,000 each
The complaint was filed by Mehjabeen Mushtaq Shaikh, who works as an executive assistant and human resources administrator at the company. Acting on their complaint, Bandra Police registered an FIR against 44-year-old Borivali residents Mohammad Shahid Azim Khan and Ritesh Suresh Shah. Police confirmed to Mumbai Mirror that the two have been arrested and remanded to police custody till May 29.
The problem was discovered on May 21, when employees needed some hard disks for ongoing work but could not find them. This led to an internal investigation of the office storage area. During inspection, several hard-disk boxes were reportedly found empty and damaged. Company records revealed that it had an inventory of 119 hard disks, of which 66 were reportedly missing.
The scale of the missing material makes the matter even more worrying. The hard disk storage capacity was reportedly between 16TB and 72TB. They included raw shooting footage, edited scenes, post-production files, advertising projects, backups, archival material, and complete movie-related data. Some of the content was related to film and OTT projects, while some was still unreleased.
Investigators have said that Khan allegedly admitted during internal questioning that he had stolen 24 hard disks in the last five months. These drives were allegedly sold to Shah for Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 each. Police also suspect that some hard disks may have later entered the gray market.
The data on the stolen drive reportedly contained material related to the projects made in heaven And Ghost storiesWith advertising campaigns for beauty and digital-content companies.
Police are now trying to find out whether data was copied, accessed, transferred or leaked before the drive went missing. Cyber experts may be asked to investigate whether any material has been disseminated or misused online.
Meanwhile, investigators are also probing whether any other employee had a role in the matter. However, the authorities have not yet reached any conclusion on that aspect.
