Kochi: Dileep and Kalabhavan Mani had extended their on-screen partnership to business dealings as well, a CBI team investigating Mani’s mysterious death reportedly received information regarding this.
Mani died in a hospital in March 2016 after a night of partying at his farm house at Chalakudy. His brother said on Thursday that Dileep’s role in the death needs to be probed since the two actors had done business together.
Mani had invested in real estate but his family is unable to find much of the title deeds. The allegations could be an additional burden on Dileep, who was arrested on Monday for plotting an attack on a fellow actress in February.
The CBI has come across leads that suggest that the multiplex Dileep owns in Chalakudy started out as a joint venture between the actors. D-Cinemaas was originally named DM-Cinemaas, drawing from the names of both partners, Mani had told his friends.
The actors called off their business collaboration soon after the multiplex was opened. They had some difference of opinion, the CBI sleuths were told.
Mani was keen that they build the multiplex in his hometown even though Dileep had picked Kottarakkara for the venture. Mani even located the land and paid an advance amount to seal the deal.
The ownership of the multiplex gets murkier with allegations that an opposition MLA has also invested in the project.
The legal status of the land in which the multiplex stands is also under scrutiny. The one-acre plot, gifted to a local temple by a provincial government before the formation of Kerala in 1956, was split into eight by forging title deeds. Dileep then bought up the eight plots.
A revenue department report that the land encompassed 35 cents of no-man’s land never saw the light of the day. The land revenue commissioner ordered in 2015 to scrutinize the land records but the land owner thwarted the move using his connections in the power circles, source said.
It was also reported that a minister had intervened on behalf of Dileep to get the district collector write a favorable report. In return, the actor ensured that the political leader’s relative acted in one of his movies and went home with a fat paycheck.
D-Cinemaas was Dileep’s pilot project before starting a series of multiplexes across Kerala, a strategy that would have cemented his grip on the industry. The actor-producer-exhibitor turned a hero of sorts in the industry when he foiled an attempt by an exhibitor lobby to stop screening of movies in Kerala’s movie halls.
Read more: Latest Kerala news | Did Dileep encroach upon govt land to build D-Cinemaas? Minister orders probe