Prominent Hindi film producer-director Zoya Akhtar has come under focus following allegations of theft involving 66 hard drives containing film and web series-related data from the Bandra-based Tiger Baby Films production house in Mumbai, according to reports. Police have arrested two individuals, including an office assistant, in connection with the case.
According to police officials, the matter came to light after Mehjabeen Shaikh, executive assistant at Tiger Baby Digital LLP, lodged a formal complaint at Bandra Police Station alleging that multiple hard drives containing sensitive and important production material had gone missing from the company’s office.
Police identified 28-year-old Mohammad Shahid Azim Khan as the primary accused during the investigation. Khan was employed as an office assistant at the production house and had knowledge of office operations and storage systems, police said. Investigators alleged that over the past five months, he stole several hard drives and sold them to stationery shop employee Ritesh Suresh Shah. Police said each hard drive is estimated to be worth between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000.
According to the complaint and police investigation, the stolen hard drives contained important production-related data, including raw footage from films and web series, advertising material, post-production backups and data linked to multiple unreleased projects. Authorities are investigating whether the data was copied, transferred or shared online.
Reports indicate that the production company suspects that more than 100 hard drives may have gone missing over the past several months, although police have so far confirmed the theft of 66 hard drives.
Mumbai Police has registered a case against both accused under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. After being produced before a court, the accused were remanded to police custody until May 29. Police said digital forensic experts are assisting the investigation.
