High Court Directs Kannada Star Dhruva Sarja To Deposit ₹3 Crore In Cheating Case

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the Bombay High Court has ordered Kannada movie star Dhruva Sarja to deposit ₹3 crore before considering his plea to quash an FIR, allegedly for cheating producer Raghvendra Hegde. Including interests and delays, this amount had increased to ₹9 crore. Dhruv is said to have accepted an advance payment of ₹3 crore for a film titled The Soldier, but this film never materialised.

In early August, a complaint had been filed in Mumbai’s Amboli Police Station against Dhruva Sarja. The complaint stated that the star had taken an advance of ₹3 crore from him as an advance payment for a film that never materialised. Hegde’s 2016 film Jaggu Dada was a hit, and Hegde was supposed to make a movie with right after.

Dhruva has denied these allegations in his petition. According to the report, he stated that he was paid ₹5 lakh short of the ₹3.15 crore advance and was promised the remaining amount after the shoot began. He maintained that he was ready to complete the film in 80 days and participate in promotions, but the film got delayed because the producer never gave him the final script.

He had last acted in 2024’s Martin. He has also completed the shoot for KD: The Devil. The THR India review of Martin reads, “Watching Martin is perhaps the equivalent of getting screamed at for nearly 150 minutes at a stretch. From the word go, the A.P. Arjun film makes the dire mistake of confusing intensity for irascibility, and it doesn’t bother to pause even for a moment to catch its breath or give the viewer the slightest chance to feel comfortable. The film trots across countries; it centres itself around sophisticated ideas like arms and illegal medicine trafficking, and incessantly invokes jingoism. But none of the schemes works because it is simply hell-bent on being big and monstrous for no reason whatsoever.”