An FIR has been filed against an unknown person for impersonating film director Rajkumar Hirani’s son and approaching aspiring actors to cast them for an upcoming film.
According to the reports, the fraudster had apparently created an Instagram account in the name of Rajkumar Hirani’s son and advertised for an audition call for a forthcoming project. The fake post advertised that there was an urgent requirement for male and female actors between the age of 18 and 25. The advertisement was for lead roles and negative roles for an upcoming film, which said that even freshers can apply. The advertisement also promised Rs. 20 crore to the selected candidate. Reportedly, the fake casting director was asking for a fee from the aspirants.
A complaint was filed by the film director’s office after it received inquiries about the authenticity of the audition calls posted on Instagram. The complaint was registered with Andheri Police in Mumbai.
Earlier this month, Hirani’s office received an email asking them about casting calls made by his son Kabir for a movie titled ‘3 Teenage’. Hirani’s office was shocked at the email as they were not working on any such project and had not given any casting calls either.
The aspiring actor who wrote an email to Hirani’s office said that the imposter had used Kabir’s name to make casting calls for actors required for the project and had asked them to contact the production house. In the advertisement put out on Instagram, the fraudster had also tagged the filmmaker’s account. The production house approached the police after another aspiring actor contacted them making similar enquiries.
“A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and investigation is underway. We are trying to ascertain if the accused fraudster has duped any aspiring actor using this modus operandi,” Vijay Belge, a senior police officer at Andheri Police station said.
The police are now investigating and trying to identify the identity of the accused, who had used the production house’s email ID, address and impersonated them to mislead people and cause a commotion in the filmmaker’s name
