In January, Roy had approached them under the banner of Deep International with the offer of making telefilms for Bengali associations in
Australia and the UK. “He showed us a letter from one Ananya Bangali Association in Melbourne at his Jodhpur Park office and asked us to make a film. The booking amount for each film was Rs 7,300. He said he would buy them for Rs 160,000 each,” said Alok Dutta of Max 7. But after the first film was completed, he lured the producers to make another one by paying up the booking amount. The producers spent about 1 lakh on each film, said Dutta.
He added that Roy told the producers that there were limited slots available for each association and interested producers should book them in advance. Slots of 20-36 films were sold to producers for Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh. “By July 2007, most of the producers had completed about three to four films and approached Roy for payment. He issued cheques of Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda to the producers. But all the cheques bounced,” said Dibyendu Bose, a producer. Gradually, Roy stopped taking their calls and closed down his Jodhpur Park office. The producers filed individual complaints at the Jadavpur police station but no action was taken against him. “Roy has to pay Rs 7 to 10 lakh to most of the producers. We will meet the chief minister on Monday and request him to take action against him,” said Deb Sinha, a producer.