A major data-theft case has surfaced at Tiger Baby Digital LLP, the production house founded by filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. According to reports, 66 hard disks containing crucial production and post-production material allegedly went missing from the company’s office in Bandra, Mumbai, raising concerns over a possible leak of unreleased content linked to films, OTT projects and advertising campaigns.
The complaint was filed by Mehjabeen Mushtaq Shaikh, executive assistant and HR administrator at Tiger Baby. Following her complaint, the Bandra police registered an FIR against Mohammad Shahid Azim Khan and Ritesh Suresh Shah, a 44-year-old resident of Borivali. Both accused have been arrested and remanded to police custody till May 29.
The issue reportedly came to light on May 21, when employees were unable to locate several hard disks required for ongoing work. An internal inspection of the office storage area allegedly revealed empty and damaged hard-disk boxes inside the storage cabinet. Company records showed that out of 119 hard disks listed in the inventory, 66 were missing as per a report in Mumbai Mirror.
The stolen drives reportedly had storage capacities ranging from 16TB to 72TB and contained highly sensitive data, including raw footage, edited scenes, post-production files, backups, archival material, advertisement projects and completed movie-related content. Some of the material was linked to unreleased film and OTT projects under the Tiger Baby banner, including the acclaimed series Made In Heaven and Zoya Akhtar’s segment from Netflix’s 2020 anthology Ghost Stories.
During questioning, investigators claim Khan admitted to stealing 24 hard disks over the past five months. Police allege that he sold the drives in the grey market to Shah for amounts ranging between ₹15,000 and ₹20,000 per disk. Authorities suspect some of the stolen drives may have been circulated further.
While the estimated value of the missing data is believed to exceed ₹13 lakh, investigators fear the financial damage could escalate significantly if confidential footage or unreleased content is leaked online. Cybercrime experts are now examining whether any data was copied, transferred or circulated before the drives disappeared. Police are also probing whether additional employees may have been involved in the alleged theft.