Exclusive | Vikram Bhatt’s ‘Khilone’ Crew Also Allege Non-Payment After ‘1920’ Row: 'It's Been a Nightmare'

In July 2022, filmmakers Vikram Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt stood shoulder to shoulder at a press conference unveiling their new films. Among the announcements was Khilone, an action film Vikram described as a genre-defining spectacle that would rival global tentpoles. He closed his address with the line, “The start of a revolution always begins with a whisper. So please listen to the whisper today, because you are the first to witness it."

Three years on, those who worked on the film tell THR India that the whisper never grew into anything. The project stalled, the promised revolution never arrived, and payments—collectively running into tens of lakhs—allegedly remain unpaid.

The allegations around Khilone, which starred Anupriya Goenka, surfaced days after similar complaints were raised by the cast and crew associated with 1920: Horrors of the Heart, who also claimed delays and non-payment of dues as reported by THR India.

Vikram Bhatt and his wife, Shwetambari, were allegedly involved in a ₹30 crore fraud case and were arrested in Mumbai in December last year. THR India reached out to Vikram Bhatt's daughter, filmmaker Krishna Bhatt, for comment, but received no response at the time of filing.

Make-up artist Komal Halai Dhawan, who says she worked on the project, recalls being hired in 2022 for what was presented as a feature film starring Goenka. The film was backed by Vikram Bhatt's Loneranger Productions.

"We finished a couple of days of shooting, and then we were told on what they said was the last day that the project was being turned into a web series. They said there would be a break and we’d start again. They never told us the project was being shut down," Dhawan recalls.

According to her, the unit was later called back to film an additional day. At the time, she says, the move appeared to signal continuity. In hindsight, she questions the intent. “It felt like they were trying to show somebody that the shoot was still on—maybe an investor. Eventually they just shut shop,” she alleges.

Dhawan says that from late 2022 onward, she and her representatives repeatedly followed up for outstanding dues. “Till today, they still owe me money for that project. Many other crew members, including actors, haven't been paid. A few people went to the office, created a scene, and were given a little money and told to go away. Nothing substantial happened," Dhawan claims, alleging that her own pending payment is ₹1.75 lakh.

“It became mentally exhausting. It really put a lot of people off the industry. I felt like, what’s the point of working somewhere and then begging for your own money?” she said.

A member of the camera department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described a similar experience across multiple productions linked to the same banner.

“Khilone was a project where we went every day, worked endless hours, and were told payments would be cleared in the next film,” the technician says. “After we left, I personally went 60 to 70 times to the office asking for my money. But nothing happened.”

The crew member alleges that small, intermittent payments were sometimes made during production, only to stop later. “As long as you were working with them, they would give you small amounts so you wouldn’t leave. Once you left, they stopped entertaining you.”

Both Dhawan and another crew member THR India spoke to described Khilone as a virtual production-heavy shoot mounted largely within a controlled studio environment. The scale of the setup, they say, suggested a project that was actively moving forward, coupled with names like Vikram Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt attached to it. Dhawan claimed that the latter was even present on sets sometimes, directing actors.

“It was a proper setup—production design, costumes, development work, recces for months. That’s why we assumed there was no question of not being paid," another crew member associated with the film said.

Several other categories of workers—including technicians associated with virtual production and support staff—were also allegedly left waiting for dues, according to the same source. These assertions could not be independently corroborated.

Dhawan further alleges that repeated assurances linked payment timelines to future releases. “They kept saying once another project was released, they would start clearing people. So it was just constant chasing,” she says.

Her frustration today is less about recovery, she adds, and more about what she describes as a pattern. “I had other ways of earning. But imagine assistants or daily-wage crew who depend entirely on that income? It has been a nightmare. At the time, people told me to let it go because, 'This is how the industry works.’ But this is not normal. You cannot have people work and not pay them."

The anonymous technician frames the experience as career-altering. “You can’t survive without money. After this, I had to step back from films. It kind of crashed that dream.”