Mumbai: CEO of TV channel held for airing movies without filmmakers’ permission

The Criminal Intelligence Unit of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Monday arrested the chief executive officer (CEO) of Maha Movie television channel in a copyright violation case. The police said that the accused, Sanjay Verma, was arrested for allegedly airing five films produced and directed by Prakash Mehra on Maha Movie channel without obtaining the rights from the makers.

Maha Movie is among the channels, including Republic TV, Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi, News Nation and Wow TV, named in the TRP scam for manipulating television rating points. Verma is not named in the TRP case, said police.

During the course of the TRP investigation, the police said they found that Maha Movie and Box Cinema had aired films without obtaining necessary rights from filmmakers in 2020.