66 hard disks of filmmakers stolen, staffer among 2 held

Mumbai: Two men were arrested on Monday over the alleged theft of 66 hard disks worth Rs 13 lakh from the Bandra office of Bollywood filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti.

Police said one of them, Mohammad Shahid Khan, had worked at the filmmakers’ office as a support staffer for the past seven years, while the other, Ritesh, purchased the stolen property from him.

Police registered an FIR on Sunday based on a statement by an executive assistant working at Akhtar and Kagti’s production house, Tiger Baby Digital LLP. There are 11 employees, four of whom are support staffers.

According to the FIR, the production house stores data of shoots from films and commercials in hard disks that are kept at the Bandra office. The complainant said she had placed all the hard disks in proper order in the office cupboard in Nov 2025. Thereafter, whenever hard disks were required, Khan was asked to fetch them.

On May 21, other employees at the production house asked Khan to fetch a particular hard disk, which he couldn’t get, according to the FIR. The complainant then checked the cupboard and discovered that some of the boxes in which hard disks had been kept were partially burnt. But neither were there hard disks in them nor was there any burn mark on the cupboard.

The other employees then performed an audit and discovered that 66 hard disks were missing, some of which contained data from films, OTT shows and commercials shot by the production house. The filmmakers were informed and the support staff was quizzed.

According to the FIR, Khan admitted to stealing 24 hard disks over the past five months and selling them to Ritesh, who is based out of Borivli. He did not admit to stealing the rest. Bandra police were then informed.

BNS charges of theft by servant of property in possession of employer and retaining or receiving stolen property have been invoked against Khan and Ritesh.