The securities scam of 1992 had shocked the whole nation and exposed loopholes in the stock exchange and banking system of India. The mastermind behind this massive stock manipulation was the stockbroker, Harshad Mehta. Journalists Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu had a book released titled The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away, which forms the main material for the upcoming web series ‘Scam 1992’, by national award-winning director Hanshal Mehta. The teaser for the same got released recently and it stars Shreya Dhanwanthary, Pratik Gandhi and Sharib Hashmi.
The teaser gives us the idea of a scam worth Rs. 5000 crores done by stockbroker Harshad Mehta and how he orchestrated it. It also hints at the manner in which the scam was brought to the notice of the Press.
The teaser shows a hesitant and nervous man in the 1990s, speaking to a newspaper journalist Sucheta Dalal about a scam worth Rs. 500 crores. The journalist is being played by Shreya Dhanwanthary and she asks in disbelief as to who does the man think is behind the massive scam. The man fumbles the name of ‘Harshad Mehta’. Glimpses of Harshad Mehta played by actor Pratik Gandhi, his life and plots of the scam are shown in the teaser and the timeline can be estimated to be the 1980s and the 1990s. There is no introduction to the character of Harshad Mehta here and the series is based on the journalists’ point of view who were also the authors of the book.
Pratik Gandhi in the lead role had risen to fame with the 2014 Gujarati movie called ‘Bey Yaar’. He had made his debut in the Hindi film industry with the movies ‘Loveyatri’ and ‘Mitron’. Actor Satish Kaushik, Nikhil Dwivedi, Rajat Kapoor and Ananth Mahadevan are also associated with the show.
The description of the teaser by director Hanshal Mehta read, “Set in the 1980s and 90’s Bombay, Scam 1992 follows the life of Harshad Mehta- a stockbroker who single-handedly took the stock market to dizzying heights & his catastrophic downfall.”
The “Amitabh Bachchan of Stock Market”, stockbroker Harshad Mehta had several financial crime charges framed against him in the securities scam of the year 1992. This scam is recorded as the biggest financial scam till now in the history of India. Harshad Mehta had 27 criminal charges brought against him but he was convicted in only 4 as he passed away after being tried for 9 years, in 2001. The scandals exposed the loopholes in the banking system of India after which the SEBI and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) transaction system introduced renewed regulations to eliminate the loopholes.
The teaser was praised by filmmaker Anubhav Sinha who took to Twitter to write, “Ahahahaha. This is delightful. This story had to be told. And this had to be told by someone like Hansal. So looking forward. Sameer and Applause deserve a big round of Applause. @mehtahansal @JaiHMehta @nairsameer”.
