Trigger Warning: This article contains references to alcohol and drugs.

Malayalam actors Sreenath Bhasi of Manjummel Boys and Prayaga Martin are reportedly under the scanner of a police investigation because of their alleged connection to gangster KK Omprakash. As per a report by OnManorama, the police have confirmed that the actors had visited the notorious goon at his hotel room in Kochi.

The report also specifies that the ongoing investigation is based on the mobile phones recovered from the gangster. The police cannot disclose information about CCTV footage they received and will also question the actors named in their report.

For those unversed, gangster KK Omprakash and his Kollam-native associate, Shihas, had been arrested by police after they received a tip-off about a drug sale ahead of Alan Walker‘s music show in Kochi on October 6, 2024.

The police apprehended the gangster and conducted a raid in his hotel room, where they had seized liquid drugs and 8 bottles of alcohol. As per a report by Manorama News, the authorities had found over 4 liters of alcohol and cocaine residue in the room.

All the suspects have been reported to have undergone blood tests and were staying in 3 different rooms at the hotel. According to the report, the suspects also organized a DJ party on October 5, the same day on which Bhasi and Prayaga are speculated to have visited the gangster.

The remand report has mentioned that the actors and nearly 20 others had apparently visited the gangster on the said day. Moreover, Omprakash was later sent on bail after arrest, with the court saying that the police had failed to collect a commercial quantity of drugs during the raid.

Disclaimer: If you know someone who is struggling with alcohol or substance abuse, please reach out to the authorities and report it. There are several helplines available for the same.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is an ace filmmaker who has added to the rich history of Indian cinema in the past decades. Just like every artist, he also has a process that makes him create iconic films like Devdas and Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela. During an interview, he spoke about making the audience feel the emotions of his characters, be it through his screenplay, the costumes, the props in the set or the background score. Talking about his magnum opus, Bajirao Mastani, SLB stated that he wanted cinema watchers to feel the humiliation that Mastani felt when she was called the ‘other woman’.

While talking to The Hollywood Reported India about his process of filmmaking, Sanjay Leela Bhansali stated that for him, it’s the essence of that moment that he wants to create and make the audience resonate with it. He stated that some scenes that become iconic come alive when he is creating them on sets and for that he has to be alive.

The filmmaker-music composer stated that his filmmaking is more than the hair fluttering or the eye moving. For him, it’s about moments, faces, about letting the audience feel in which place he is in. He went on to say that he wanted the viewers to feel the humiliation that Mastani felt (in Bajirao Mastani) “that she was loved by Bajirao but not being accepted by Bajirao and she was the other woman. I made Bajirao because there was a man who said ‘You’re not the other woman. You will come into my house because I love you.’ That is why I told that love story of a warrior.”

But to make the viewers feel the emotion, he made Tanvi Azmi’s character Radhabai and added layers to a scene to exude what he wants people to interpret. This is how he likes a film to be; to have mystery, enigma, a sense of unraveling that he is doing. Giving another example, Bhansali stated that the moment when Manisha Koirala’s character Mallikajaan from debut OTT series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, went to the fountain to purify herself after being assaulted by the Britishers came alive because during the making he questioned himself, ‘How am I going to make the audience feel what Manisha is feeling?’

Meanwhile, on the work front, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is all set to direct Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal in his next titled Love And War. The movie is expected to hit cinemas in March 2026.