In April 1992, mayhem hit the Indian financial sector as the nation woke up to the biggest stock market scam. So huge was its impact on Dalal Street that it led to structural changes in the financial security system of India with new reforms in stock trades.
However, what remains untold is the story of the mastermind behind it. Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story, SonyLIV’s latest tentpole show, is about the charismatic stockbroker who orchestrated a previously unheard-of Rs 5,000-crore securities scandal. Unravelling the man from the myth over the course of 10 nail-biting episodes, the show will drop on the OTT platform on 9 October.
With it, SonyLIV is hoping to boost its subscriber base while fulfilling its promise to deliver more original content. Produced by Applause Entertainment in association with Studio Next, this series is a financial crime thriller based on the bestseller book The Scam written by notable journalists Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal.
The series is a gripping tale of the meteoric rise and fall of the flamboyant big bull of the stock market – Harshad Mehta. Directed by national award-winning filmmaker Hansal Mehta, the series is led by Pratik Gandhi and Shreya Dhanwanthary along with an ensemble cast of Satish Kaushik, Sharib Hashmi, Anant Mahadevan, Nikhil Dwivedi, KK Raina and Lalit Parimoo, among others.
“This show gives you an intimate peek into the middle-class aspirations of a common man who rose from rags to riches while managing to subvert and deceive the banking system. It talks about what the system, if not mended, might make people do. The system doesn’t seem to have mended. There is scam on scam,” Mehta averred. Having helmed films about complex socio-political issues, like Shahid starring Rajkummar Rao, and Manoj Bajpayee-led Aligarh, Mehta found the enormity of Scam 1992 to be a quite a unique challenge.
