NCB Summons Producer Madhu Mantena

NCB summoned producer Madhu Mantena after questioning of Jaya Saha brought out the names of Deepika Padukone and her manager Karishma Prakash in the chats.

Madhu Mantena has been summoned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with the probe into the alleged Bollywood-drug racket nexus. The producer has been summoned for questioning by the agency on Wednesday. His name had allegedly come up during the questioning of Jaya Saha, the talent manager whose chats with Deepika Padukone, among others have become a talking point.

Madhu Mantena is a known producer in the film industry for close to two decades. After films like Ghajini and Rakta Charitra as an independent producer, he was a part of the quartet, also including Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl and Vikramaditya Motwane that had set up the now-defunct Phantom Films, The banner was behind numerous popular films in the last few years, like Lootera, Hasee Toh Phasee, Queen, Shaandaar, Masaan, Udta Punjab, Super 30, Trapped.

He was married to fashion designer Masaba Gupta, daughter of Neena Gupta and Sir Vivian Richards, before parting ways in 2018.

NCB probes Bollywood-drug link

Meanwhile, the NCB has turned the focus on KWAN talent management agency after their talent manager’s Jaya Saha’s chats brought out the names of Deepika, and her manager Karishma Prakash. After Karishma was summoned on Monday, now KWAN CEO Dhruv Chitgopekar has been summoned for Tuesday. Jaya Saha is set to be questioned again on Tuesday.

Deepika was also a part of the controversial 2019 video, which the NCB has taken up for investigation, on the basis of the complaint by Manjinder Singh Sirsa.

The NCB is set to summon Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor as well in the investigation. The latter’s chats with Jaya Saha have also been leaked, where they have spoken about ‘CBD oil.’