NEW DELHI, March 1: It is the stuff soap operas are made of -- the brutal murder of a business magnate, a messy family feud, conspiracy theories and a warring family. Now, the T-Series family drama is being played out in the open.The 20-year-old son of the murdered music baron Gulshan Kumar, Bhushan Kumar, on Friday served a legal notice on his uncle Gopal Krishna threatening to initiate civil and criminal proceedings against him if he did not stop using the T-Series logo within 30 days.
It was on February 13 that the family fight first spilt onto the streets -- when Krishna, Gulshan Kumar's younger brother, was stopped from entering the Lakshmi Studio in sector 16A, Noida.
The studio's security guard got a case of rioting, trespass and criminal intimidation registered against Krishna and some others accompanying him. According to the complaint, Krishna along with "some goons" tried to occupy the property. His associate Krishan Arora was arrested and later released on bail.
Krishna, too, says that hewas manhandled and stopped from entering the place which he himself had given to his brothers Darshan Kumar and Krishan Kumar as part of an agreement on December 18. "If I wanted, even I could have got a case registered, but I didn't. After all, it is family," says Krishna.
"I suffered such immense mental and physical stress that I had to be admitted to Escorts Heart Institute. For four days I was there, undergoing all kinds of tests. Now with the grace of Devi maa, I am fine," says Krishna, sitting in his plush Greater Kailash II house, finalising the financing of a new maroon-coloured Mercedes Benz.
The bone of contention between the two feuding groups in the family is the two companies -- Tony Electronics (which makes blank cassettes) and Jagdamba Enterprises of T-Series. Krishna had been given control of the two companies as per the December 18 agreement, along with Gopal Soaps and Rajni Industries, which had earlier been entrusted to him by Gulshan Kumar himself.
However, according to T-Seriessources, trouble started when Krishna started demanding spot payments for goods supplied by Tony and Jagdamba to other companies of the group.
"Bhushan got angry because other companies were giving 30-day credit and his uncle gave him only 24 hours. And after the February 13 incident, he decided that Gopal will have nothing do with Tony and Jagdamba," says a senior employee of Super Cassette Industries, the flagship of T-Series.
However, Krishna is not taking things lying down. "How can they take away the companies? They were given to me as per a proper agreement, agreed upon by the entire family," he says.
Bhushan, however, is not willing to make any concession. He dares his uncle to approach the court. "There will be no compromise. He can approach the courts if he wants to. He will only get Rajni Industries and Gopal Soaps -- the companies my father gave him. He cannot demand more and go on irritating us. I am also going to withdraw from his companies the right to use the T-Series logo. I don't wantmy name to come down because of his lack of professionalism," says Bhushan.
Bhushan has with him his other two uncles -- Darshan Kumar, who handles Super Electronics and the studio at Noida and Krishan Kumar, who looks after recordings and film production in Mumbai. Krishna thinks that Bhushan is being instigated. "He is a young boy and is being given all the wrong advice by the directors and others in the company. He is a novice and still has a lot to learn," he says. He adds that after the death of his brother, he is the only person who knows the business of music and cassettes.
Krishna, however, is not planning to take the legal route even if the two companies are taken away from him, at least for the time being. "I am not sure if they will actually take away the companies. I am going to leave the decision to my father (Chander Bhan)," he says. However, senior T-Series employees say that with the rift in the family out in the open, the credibility of the company has been affected. One of them says thatthe company had been on a down-slide even while Gulshan Kumar was alive. "Many of the loyal dealers are deserting the company," he says. But Bhushan counters the charges. "All is well with the business. We have recently released music for new movies like Salakhein, Aflatoon and Pyaar Kiya to Darna Kya. We have got six-to-eight new movies after my father's death," he says.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
