Mumbai:A Mumbai-based actress Sagrika Shona Suman has alleged that British celebrity businessman Raj Kundra is the real brain behind the porn racket. "For last one year Hotshots App is referred to as Raj Kundra's company by everyone in the industry. The money and paper trail may be difficult to find but it definitely exists," Suman said.
She has alleged that she was approached several times by arrested accused Umesh Kamat who openly claimed that he worked for Kundra and that Kundra was the owner of Hotshots and Kenrin.
Gehana Vasisth's spokesperson Flynn Renedios said he was not sure but had heard from reliable sources in the Mumbai police that Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband and celebrity businessman Raj Kundra is allegedly the main owner or investor of the UK-based production house – Kenrin, which was buying pornographic clips and videos from several “contracted producers and directors” in India for online distribution and sale via various APPs owned or managed by them."I don't know about all this, please ask Mr Raj Kundra," Remedios said.
According to media reports Kundra had earlier invested Rs 10 crore in Navi Mumbai-based IT firm Armsprime which developed mobile Apps for celebs like Sherlyn Chopra, Poonam Pandey, Gehana Vasisth and hundreds others.
It also ran it’s own APP Hotshots, which was allegedly known as “Raj Kundra’s company” by everyone in the industry, said model and actress Sagrika Shona Suman, adding that hundreds of models in India were approached by Kenrin and its associates for the porn business.
One nude model Ishika Borah was offered Rs 75,000 per shift for porn shoots, claimed police sources, but she turned it down. However, Borah is active on another paid content service Patreon, which encourages models to create bold content and collect a personal subscriber base.
While Patreon does not directly demand porn or soft-porn content, it shares revenue with the models who are offered indirect incentives to create semi-porn content as it attracts more subscribers.Models like Ishika Borah are very active on Patreon.
According to Suman, Hotshots was discontinued after things got too hot to handle for the owners and they decided to change their business model. Kamat was then made the boss and Kundra, exited the business at least on paper.
As of today, there is no paper trail to link Kundra to the porn racket, but it is a known fact that a huge chunk of the business is indirectly managed by him through proxies like Umesh Kamat.
The Hotshots set-up which was fronted by a former property agent or broker Umesh Kamat was sourcing soft porn videos from various content developers, which included topless content, but did not cross the yellow line.
From March 2020 as the lock down began, APPS like Hothits, Neufliks, etc., started offering hard core porn to take on the financial muscle of Hotshots which was funded by Kundra.
Kamat was arrested by the Mumbai police Crime Branch’s Property Cell yesterday for involvement in the Mumbai porn racket, after the police raided a live shoot at Green Park bungalow at Madh Island.
Sagrika Shona Suman has demanded that celebrities and other publicly-known soft-porn content creators like Poonam Pandey, Sherlyn Chopra and models such as Sejal Shah and Kanchan aka Kanchan Aunty who have openly advertised their “controversial content” on Twitter should also be taken to task.
Another former soft-porn actress Sapna Sappu has also seconded Sagrika’s claims that Raj Kundra owned and operated Kenrin and HotShots through his proxy Umesh Kamat who was designated as the CEO.
Sappu turned against her mentor Yash Thakur of Nuefliks after she was ousted from the group due to personal fights.
She has now filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court, claiming that she was a victim of the porn business and got into it because she was broke. She also filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Cell of the Mumbai Police alleging that she was mentally tortured, stalked online and harassed by several persons, after she broke off with her group.
Kamat has only completed his HSc but was being paid a handsome salary of Rs 60,000 to Rs 80,000 per month to front Kundra, police sources at the Crime Branch told this reporter.
Raj Kundra was unavailable for comment, in spite of several attempts to contact him, however a family friend has denied all the allegations, claiming that Kundra had nothing to do with the porn racket and was had only invested in the software firm Armsprime, which was in the business of developing mobile APPs.
“If someone uses an APP of illegal purpose, Kundra cannot be made responsible,” the family friend told his reporter.
However, as per an article in Mid-day, arrested accused Umesh Kamat has uploaded several porn videos from Kundra’s office and the same is being used as evidence against him.
“Police are playing the cautious card and going slow with Raj Kundra,” said Sagrika Shona Suman, adding that “he is a big celebrity and also politically well-connected, but this entire porn operation is financed by him.
“This reporter was not able to reach out to Raj Kundra for comment and this article will be updated as and when he responds with his statement.
Poonam Pandey has allegedly signed contracts with the production house Kenrin and other international firms including the Big Daddy of porn – Pornhub.com, via another Indian firm, for buying and exhibiting porn content on a profit sharing basis internationally.The same modus operandi is used by other soft-porn Indian models.
Another US-based production house Nuefliks, earlier known as Flizmoviez, run by Yash Thakur aka “Suresh” is actually sourcing and producing porn content from Surat and Mehsana, revealed Sagrika Shona.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the several accused arrested by the Crime Branch’s Property Cell today claimed that no crime is committed as all participants or models are adults and have consented in writing and signed contracts as well as video contracts for their participation in the shoots.
Except for 3-4 disgruntled models whose sole aim is to extort huge amounts from celebs like Kundra, all the other “actors” who allegedly shot the porn videos have no complaints.(press release)
