A major blow to Bollywood is the death of liquor baron and movie distributor Ponty Chadha. Many movie producers and directors worked closely with Chadha prior to now. No less than 6-7 prominent filmmakers were in serious negotiations with Chadha over big-budget projects which might now need to seek a special outlet for financial sustenance.
Apparently, Bollywood financier Bharat Shah was the last person from the Hindi film industry to have negotiated with Ponty Chadha. Bharat Shah has major financial stakes in director Anand Kumar's Sanjay Dutt-Arshad Warsi-Vivek Oberoi production Zilla Ghazibad.
Shah was to fly Delhi on Saturday, the day tragedy struck Ponty Chadha's life, to screen the film for Chadha who showed a keen interest within the distribution of the film.
Barely an hour before Ponty was to view Zilla Ghaziabad, he was shot dead.
Confirming this, the Zilla Ghaziabad producer Vinod Bachchan says, "Bharatbhai is closely involved with my film. He was in serious negotiation with Ponty Chadhaji for the global distribution of our film. On Friday evening at around 7 pm Bharatbhai spoke to Ponty Chadhaji about screening our film for his viewing. On Saturday morning our representatives flew into Delhi with the film. Our appointment was at 4 pm. Our representatives were waiting at his office for Pontyji when the shocking news came at 3.30 pm."
Bachchan says Ponty Chadha's death is a significant setback not only for his film but to entire film industry. "IT IS A big blow for our film Zilla Ghaziabad but additionally for the film industry. Pontyji was closely related to many giant projects involving huge financial stakes. It might be really difficult to search out someone to exchange his high level of economic commitment to our films."
