News coming in suggests that the cast and crew of Life OK’s wrapped up project Naagarjun are caught in the legal web.

The project has shut shop, but one incident from the shooting floor has left all in the lurch.

Produced by Beyond Dreams Productions, helmed by Yash Patnaik, on the occasion of the show’s 100 episodes completion, the unit brought snakes to create some ‘hisssssss’ in media.

The serpent made for a great PR stunt and the show’s actors, displaying bravado, went clickety click with the creature. The pictures of the act posted on social media caught fire and soon became the talk of the tinsel town.

It was all fun and fiery, until the law showed its fangs.

The snake is listed as endangered species and the Forest Officers jumped into action.

An animal activist named Meet Ashar reached out to the Mumbai Police (DCP of Zone 12) who directed the case to the Forest Department. Meet was informed about the viral pictures by his friends.

An FIR was reported on 17 January with the Forest Department and they sounded off to the production team.

Cuts in a source: “The incident took place sometime in October. Actors Shruti Ulfat and Peal V Puri shared pictures on social media. On receiving a query on the same, the production team initially said that the snake was not real, it was generated using computer graphics, which was of course a blatant lie.”

The officers, not to be fooled, continued with investigation and they found that the snake used was indeed real, further tightening the legal noose on the production unit.  The case was fast tracked and a complaint under Section 48 and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 was filed against the actors (Shruti and Pearl) along with two production guys named Nitin Solanki and Utkarsh Bali.

Interestingly, not many were aware of the case till yesterday when the actors involved, Shruti Ulfat and Pearl V Puri, were rumoured to be arrested.

Tellychakkar.com, wanting to get to the bottom of the matter contacted Meet, the Honorary Animal Welfare Officer appointed by the Animal Welfare Board of India, Government of India. He shared, “The Wildlife Protection Act clearly states that no protected species can be held captive. It is a criminal offence under the law. I have been in constant touch with the police and the Forest Officers and will follow up further if need be. The Forest Department is also trying to find the man (snake catcher) who got the reptile on the set. The Forest Department has done a commendable job and the four accused were produced in court yesterday, and were sent to the custody of the Forest Department for a day. The matter is listed for hearing today.”

We have also been told that the Forest Officers had reached out to the maker (Yash Patnaik) but received no cooperation, a claim which we could not validate due to Yash’s unavailability when we tried to solicit a response from him.

Deputy Conservator of Forest (Territorial) Kishore Thakare also shared, “Cases have been filed under Section 48 and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. We arrested the four accused and brought them to the Borivali Magistrate yesterday. Being a non-bailable offence the Magistrate sentenced them to one day custody. Mishandling and sharing pictures in media of any wild life species is prohibited in the law. We are following up on the case and more enquiries are happening as we talk. We will update as and when there is more development.”

Wanting to get the other side of the story, we also called up Pearl, who said, “We went to meet the Forest Officers and recorded our statements. The case has been going on for more than three months now and we have been in regular touch with the officials. Mumbai Police and other officials have always been supportive and we, on our part, will also cooperate to find the missing snake catcher. Had we any idea that the snake was an endangered one or illegal to be used, we would have never allowed it on sets. As a responsible citizen, I have been to the court and met the officers, gave them all information that I had about the snake catcher. We also identified few sketches. We are hopeful that the officers will nab the criminal.”

Shruti remained unavailable till the time of filing the article.

Tellychakkar.com will soon come up with more updates.