Now freelance journalist and author Flynn Remedios is burning the midnight oil trying to get out Lalit Modi’s biography before the controversy dies down. Says Flynn Remedios, “For the last two weeks the media has gone to town and most news channels have dedicated almost or more than 60 per cent of their news telecast time to the IPL controversy or IPL gate. A lot of incorrect information or data is coming out in the media. The real controversy lies buried six feet under. There is much much more to IPLgate than meets the eye. Many more big names are involved. There is the match fixing and betting rackets and some prominent names will definitely come out. My books will reveal much more than what is being seen right now. Skeletons will tumble out of the closets, dressing rooms and drawers like bees coming out of a beehive.” 

Besides Lalit Modi’s biography, it is also learnt that Flynn Remedios is working on a film script on the IPL saga for a well-known film director and producer and another book titled IPL gate.

Asked how long it will take before the books can hit the book shelves of stores, Flynn quips, “Maybe a month, maybe two months. It depends on how fast my publishers can print it.”

Almost a forthnight later into the controversy as allegations of match fixing, match and performance outcome fixing, money laundering, fraud, cheating, bribery and what not continue to fly fast and free, Twitter continues to be the official media for the parties concerned.

 On Saturday Shashi Tharoor broke his silence in the virtual world when the tweeted that he would feel his resignation was worth it if the truth came out. This was followed by tweets by other personalities like Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and others.

Here’s a list of all the Tweets courtesy Times of India: 

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, who is under intense pressure to resign from his post after I-T officials began probing IPL finances, on Saturday put out his message on Twitter saying he won’t resign.

Modi said, “People pressurising me to resign – I can tell you will not happen. Let them remove me then.”

“I am not the type to quit. Have faith. Did not create this to just walk away because xyz says what they feel like,” Modi declared.

“What we have done has been there for all of you to see for the past four years. No one can take that away,” he added on Twitter.

“Media is putting stories without verification goes to show how media can misuse there power. Don’t get influenced by all these baseless stories,” he wrote.

“Truth will prevail soon. Trial by media and no chance to present the facts is like the wild west. Wait and the facts will be delivered,” he said.

Tweeting about the IPL controversy, Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan, co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders wrote, “IPL controversy: fast, furious & too much noise. Like the T20 itself. Hope it gets resolved as fast too for our friend Lalit & franchises.”

“Had a great time. Could not stay back as had a shoot in the morning. All of us smiled through a tinge of sadness,” Shah Rukh added.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Vijay Mallya tweeted that despite media bashing it was heart warming to witness applause by owners/ players for Lalit Modi at the awards for the fine job he has done.

“It was so nice to see Lalit smile despite all hell breaking loose in the media. You have to give it to him for making IPL what it is “, actress Preity Zinta, co-promoter of Kings XI Punjab, posted in her tweets.

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty of Rajasthan Royals said she supported full and fair investigations.

“Full and fair investigation of IPL will compel loud mouths to shut up by realizing the true value of sixth largest sporting event in world”, Shilpa said in her tweets. 

Apparently Lalit Modi has agreed to step down after the finals on 25^th April or latest 26^th April. This development happened after Sharad Pawar got BCCI President Shashank Manohar to speak to Lalit Modi on Friday night. According to sources, the two hadn’t spoken to each other for the last ten days and haven’t met face to face for the last 12 days.

A compromise formula has been worked out. Shashank Manohar told Lalit Modi he has to resign or step down. According to Manohar, all the government agencies – the IT dept, the DRI, the CBDT and including the CBI has been knocking on the BCCI doors and the BCCI is under investigation from all fronts. Also the ruckus in parliament, the demand for a joint parliamentary probe by the opposition, the inclusion of other political names were sparked off after Lalit Modi’s spat with Shashi Tharoor and his arbitrary and uncalled for tweets on Twitter.

Lalit Modi who was buying for time and pleading for a few days to prepare his defense lost his footing when his only supporter Sharad Pawar told him in no uncertain terms that he must go.

Maratha stongman and NCP boss Sharad Pawar has stepped in to help Lalit Modi and broker peace between the warring camps. Pawar has been working overnight, burning the midnight oil trying to convince other BCCI senior members to give Modi five more days to prepare his defence.

Sharad Pawar has been trying to get BCCI Board President Shashank Manohar and Lalit Modi to speak to each other one-to-one. Sources say that Shashank Manohar and Lalit Modi haven’t spoken to each other for the last 10 days since things took a drastically bad turn.

Watch this space for more….

According to an income tax confidential report submitted to the finance minister on Wednesday,  Lalit Modi who was till a few years ago, a business failure with a string of failed ventures, debt-ridden and almost bankrupt is now a billionnaire. His lifestyle includes a private jet, a private yatch, a fleet of Mercedes and BMW cars – not to forget dozens of lesser expensive ones – and more than two 7-star hotel suites that double up as his ‘simple accomodation’.

He is also alleged to have access to or operate several benami foreign bank accounts including some in tax havens like Mauritius and Switzerland through his proxies and associates.

Read what the Economic Times has to say on this subject:

‘Mr Lalit Modi has had a trail of failed ventures and defaults till four years back but has a lifestyle now that includes a private jet,

a luxury yacht and a fleet of Mercedes S class and BMW cars all acquired in the last three years.’

Thus opens a highly confidential and explosive report by the income-tax department that has been in the possession of the government for six months now but formed the basis of any action only on Thursday evening after a raging controversy over secret ownerships and sweetheart deals in the Indian Premier League, or IPL, stalled both houses of Parliament.

Highly-placed sources in the I-T department and the Congress party told ET that Mr Modi has been on the government radar for quite sometime. The alleged opaqueness with which he conducted the multi-billion dollar cricket tournament and the manner in which he took on home minister P Chidambaram in 2009 seem to have resulted in a detailed enquiry into his activities by the I-T department.

The report, whose contents were described to ET reporters, paints a startling picture of the alleged activities of the controversial IPL commissioner, ranging from his manipulation of land deals in Rajasthan and the existence of a maze of shell companies and offshore entities used to route payments and equity stakes worth hundreds of crores of rupees. The report also makes the startling allegation that Mr Modi—through his associates—was ‘involved’ in ‘betting’, while “insider information and outcome fixing of IPL matches were hinted at”. The six-month-old report, which I-T sleuths maintain is the basis of current investigations, is obviously referring to betting and insider information in the first two IPL tournaments, not the current one.

In preparing the report, investigators seem to have accessed his email account, confidential conversations on a UK-registered cell phone number and regulatory filings from across the globe, from Mauritius to Ireland to the US. Some other Indian cell phone numbers have also been unearthed which the I-T sleuths claim Mr Modi “keeps changing”. The report alleges that Mr Modi is “apparently deeply embroiled in both generation of black money, money laundering, betting in cricket (match fixing of certain IPL matches)”.

An email sent to Lalit Modi remained unanswered on Sunday evening. His lawyer was also sent the same email. A number of his associates named in the report might come under the scanner as the investigation, which started with visits to Mr Modi’s offices on Thursday evening, progresses through the coming weeks. Even though the report detailed the premises the tax department wanted to raid and sought permission to go ahead, political clearance was not granted until junior minister for external affairs Shashi Tharoor stepped into IPL’s murky quicksand and with him dragged the government and the Congress party into one of the biggest scandals in recent times.

“This is not just a Pandora’s box but a Pandora’s chest that has been opened,” said a senior Congress leader who has knowledge of the report. “This will indict everyone,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. When contacted about the contents of this report, the official spokesperson of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Shishir Jha, SMSed a terse ‘no comment’ to the ET reporter.

The report refers to one Deepa Raizada as a close associate of Mr Modi “who handles his cross-border transactions and offshore companies”. Ms Raizada is CEO of Modi Entertainment Networks and has worked at the firm for nearly 10 years, according to two persons who work at the company. The I-T report says she has previously worked with Equity Associates, a boutique investment firm based out of Ontario, Canada. Ms Raizada did not take calls made on her mobile number and did not respond to a text message from the ET reporter. Her home phone remained unreachable through Sunday and an email sent to an id listed under her name on the Modi Group’s website bounced.

A league of extraordinary betting?

What will come as most disturbing to cricket fans is that the report suggests pervasive betting and outcome fixing in the IPL. According to the report, Modi himself is involved through Samir Thukral, a Delhi-based “page 3 personality” with an “opulent lifestyle despite having no apparent source of income”.

Mr Thukral is a permanent fixture at all IPL matches with VIP access, the report says, adding that he “carries out the betting on behalf of Lalit Modi”. I-T sleuths are investigating “a lot of matches of IPL, especially involving the three teams in which Modi has an interest”. The mobile number listed in the report against Thukral actually belongs to Samir Thukral, a co-founder of Shree Capital Advisors, a Delhi-based private equity advisory firm.

His bio-data says he has interests in online lottery business and real estate. “I have known Lalit for 30 years and he is a good friend. And yes, of course, I went to South Africa for IPL matches, but these are wild and baseless allegations,” Mr Thukral told ET. On Sunday afternoon, Rahul Nayar, founder of Shree Capital Advisors, told ET that Mr Thukral doesn’t work for him anymore. He refused to answer other queries and hung up on ET reporters. Mr Thukral, however, maintained that he is the co-promoter of Shree Capital Advisors.

Ownership issues

The report alleges that Modi has silent ownership in three IPL teams—Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab. According to the report, Rajasthan Royals’ owner Emerging Media is controlled by Manoj Badale, Mumbai Education Trust and Ranjit Thakre, a former employee of ITC Ltd. It says a 25% stake in the team is with “hidden owner” Suresh Chellaram, a Nigeria-based co-brother-in-law of Mr Modi. Manoj Badale did not respond to an email seeking comment from ET.

Incidentally, Rajasthan Royals won the first IPL tournament in 2008. The report also says Kolkata Knight Rider’s co-owner Jay Mehta, who is married to actor Juhi Chawla, is “partly fronting” for Lalit Modi. Industrialist Jay Mehta denies these allegations. According to an official response from KKR, the team is wholly-owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan and Mr Mehta and there are no other shareholders. “Kolkata Knight Riders is owned by Mr Shah Rukh Khan and The Sea Islands Ltd (a company incorporated in Mauritius), which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mehta International Ltd—the holding company of the Mehta Group. The shareholding pattern is as follows: Mr Shah Rukh Khan-55%; Sea Islands Ltd-45%. There are no other investors in Knight Riders Sports Private Limited,” said a spokesperson of KKR.

The report claims that Modi owns a stake in Kings XI Punjab through Akash Arora, owner of Delhi-based BPO Netlink Blue. Arora is a part-owner of the team along with Ness Wadia and Mohit Burman, according to the report. “Akash does not and has never owned a stake in our team,” said Mohit Burman. He, however, declined to categorically state that 100% of the team’s ownership rests solely with himself, Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia and Karan Paul.

Mohit’s younger brother, Gaurav Burman, who is married to Lalit Modi’s stepdaughter, told ET that he also owns a stake in the Mohali team. He volunteered this information while responding to allegations in the report that he is linked to Betfair, a UK firm that runs one of the world’s largest betting syndicates on the Internet. As readers of ET would know, betting is a legal activity in the UK. The report says that according to information contained in Modi’s email account, the IPL chairman is helping Betfair, which is seeking to enter the casino and hospitality business in India.

“Gaurav Burman is to receive equity on behalf of Lalit Modi,” the report says. “This is completely baseless, I have no links whatsoever with Betfair,” Gaurav Burman told ET. From Modi’s emails, the tax department also accessed details of a transaction relating to the purchase of a luxury yacht in Malta that is to be delivered in Mumbai or Dubai.

Conflicts of interest

WSG and IMG, two companies that received BCCI contracts, are both old business partners in Modi’s own businesses. Modi Entertainment Networks runs Fashion TV in India. IMG did business with Fashion TV for years before it won the contract for managing IPL. IMG, a powerful global firm with interests in sports, media and entertainment, was to get 10% of IPL’s revenues as management fee. In July 2008, following murmurs that this was too sweet a deal, BCCI terminated the contract.

The two parties later renegotiated and IMG was back in the game with a substantially reduced fee.According to the report, WSG, which owns IPL’s overseas rights, was owed $2.5 million by Modi Entertainment Network from an earlier transaction over which Modi had lost litigation both in India and the UK. The report alleges that by awarding WSG rights at favourable terms, Modi was settling the old dues from his private business. Netlink Blue, whose owner Akash Arora is a part-owner of Kings XI Punjab, according to the report, is another firm that has received favourable BCCI contracts.

“The close links of Modi with Netlink are established through a series of emails wherein Lalit has illegally given Netlink live feeds of Australia-India series before BCCI president intervened and stopped this illegal sale of rights,” the report says. Sure enough, the favour is not without a quid pro quo. “From Netlink, a part of payoff is by way of a commitment to bail out Mr Modi’s sick venture Voyages TV through cash injection of Rs 8 crore in the form of equity,” the report says, citing emails that were available to I-T sleuths.

By Megha deSouza  – Futuristic Media Network

The hot, sexy and vivacious 21-year-old Gazala Singh aka Navreen Kaur aka Gazala Kaur has been signed on for a three-film, two-year exclusive contract by the Canadian production house White Tulip Films. Gazala who originally hails from the UK has been in India for the last two months. She has deep-rooted Indian links as both her parents are Indian, but moved to the UK years ago.

Says Gazala, “I had sent out my photos to various agencies. I was initially looking for modelling assignments in India. A casting director, Andy who saw my photos called me for an audition. And before I knew it, I was offered a three-film exclusive contract with White Tulip Films.”

Gazala Singh’s publicist Flynn Remedios says, “It was a dream come true for Gazala who is a very talented dancer, singer and actor. She has been acting since the age of 10 and has done theatre, dance and drama. She has done several music videos and short films or documentaries in Great Britain and is proud to be associated with the Canada-based White Tulip Films.”

Gazala is a trained dancer, actor and singer. She is familiar with over six dance forms including Indian classical dance. She has done an acting course from the UK, but intends to further brush up her acting skills by doing a crash course in Mumbai.

Sources said that White Tulip films have recently shot a big budget music video as a test project and are planning to get into TV software production in India in a big way. “We have launched a mega project and will be producing and packaging TV software like speciality travel, lifestyle, living and fashion shows including Reality Shows for the Indian Television market. We plan to invest about Rs 50 crore initially in the Indian TV software market during the financial year 2010. Besides this, we have embarked another Rs 50 crore for four Bollywood film projects,” says Martin Samuel, President of White Tulip Films of Canada in an exclusive interview to this journalist.  White Tulip Films also offers angel and venture funding for interesting film projects. Their business model is based on inviting various partners to co-produce a film with the company playing an advisory role, also ensuring that returns are guaranteed to the investors.

While Gazala or her publicist Flynn Remedios were unwilling to comment further, sources said that she will also be doing a Dance and Beauty Reality show titled Dancing Beauty for the production house White Tulip Films. The show is expected to go on floors by end December this year.

For immediate publication:

Special staging of the play for Mumbai Police on Saturday Nov 21^st 2009.

Mumbai  20^th November 2009: The cast and crew of India’s most expensive stage production Begum Sahiba will pay homage to the martyrs and police and para-military personnel injured during the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai last year. Begum Sahiba features Poonam Dasgupta with Rahul Roy, supported by Raj Premi, Amit Pachori, Zara and Amit. The play is directed by Kiran Avidikononu.

Announcing this today, Poonam Dasgupta said: “We have decided to have a special show on Saturday 21st November 2009. All police personnel from Mumbai are invited to attend the play with our compliments. They are only required to produce their ID card for a free entry. This is a small gesture of gratitude and respect for those who laid down their lives defending our city and also for those police personnel and para military soldiers who were injured during the operation.” Echoing Poonam Dasgupta’s words Rahul Roy said that this was the least that they could do as a team for the police and para-military officers who fought shoulder to shoulder to subdue the terrorists who held the entire city to ransom for three days last year during this time.

Elaborating further Flynn Remedios publicist for Begum Sahiba explained, “We will observe a two minute silence, followed by the lighting of a lamp and a multi religious prayer. There will be a felicitation of senior police personnel followed by the staging of the play. Through this Press Release we would like to extend a warm invitation to all police personnel in Mumbai who are invited to watch this play free of cost. This invitation is with the compliments of the producer.”

Begum Sahiba is one of India’s most expensive stage productions. The play will be staged in 6-7 cities in India and is expected to also travel to Europe, USA and Australia.

For more information contact:

Flynn Remedios +919821666000 / +919819233444    Email: remediosflynn@gmail.com

SPECIAL PRESS INVITIATION

ALL MEMBERS OF THE PRESS IN MUMBAI (BOTH PRINT AND TV) ARE INVITED TO JOIN US IN PAYING OUR RESPECTS TO THE DEAD AND TO THOSE WHO WERE INJURED IN THE ATTACK.

PLS CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE BY SENDING AN SMS TO +919821666000 or +919819233444.

Rgds

Flynn Remedios

PS: Rights of Admission Reserved by the Producer

The posters of The Three Kings and Kurbaan Look Similar

Spectra Multimedia Films about two weeks ago released an advertisement in a Bollywood Trade Publication for their recently launched project The Three Kings which looked very much like the Kurbaan poster featuring Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan. We couldn’t help observing the striking similarity.

The colour scheme of the poster of The Three Kings is similar to that of Kurbaan and the actress featured is Bosky Sheth who plays Zeenat Aman in the film. The actress is also bare-backed like Kareena Kapoor though there is no male, unlike in Kurbaan where Saif poses with his lady love.

Even the colour scheme of the lettering is quite similar. We couldn’t help wondering who copied whom. When we contacted Bosky Sheth she said that she couldn’t comment on the designs, layouts and artwork. “We had shot some stills for the film about three weeks ago. The advertisement was designed much before the Kurbaan posters and ads came out all over the place, said script writer and Executive Producer Flynn Remedios, refusing to comment any further on the similarity in the layout.  The Three Kings is based on the life of Parveen Babi, played by Shikha Puri.

We wonder if this is very strange and rare coincidence or a clear case of Copy Cats at work. Anyway the striking resemblence of the two designs including the similarity in the fonts and colours is amazing.