1992: The Harshad Mehta Story

Scam 1992: another show on OTT platform, the 10 part series has managed to collectively capture the imagination of the audiences because it's a well-made, fast-paced story that stays true to the book; and is based on the real life story of a rags. The post-economic liberalisation era witnessed one of the biggest scams exposing Mumbai-based stock broker Harshad Mehta and throwing the banking system and stock markets into turmoil. Fast forward to 2020, for the first time, the country saw a visual representation of the ingenious machination of the stock market bull, who changed the face of the Dalal Street. 

The Book:

Journalists Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu, had been unearthing India's biggest scam in 1992 in their  book 'The scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away' . Debashis and Sucheta Dalal, were both covering the scam in great details and writing for The Times of India everyday. They where gathering information beyond the hard news that got covered everyday, so they decided to go ahead to write a book on it, as there were requests pouring in. The book covers all personalities, banks and institutions that were part of the complete lawlessness that prevailed in the late 1980's. The unravelling happened on two fronts - the finance minister and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) related investigation by a multi-disciplinary committee and the fact that banks and financial institutions rushed to reconcile their books and cover their track. 

The Show:

In 2020 the pandemic saw entertainment move indoors, with television and OTT platforms taking centre stage. Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta story, directed by Hansal Mehta and produced by Applause Entertainment in association with studio next, has audiences hooked.  The 10 part series has managed to collectively capture the imagination of the audiences because it's a well-made, fast-paced story that stays true to the book. It took three years to make Scam 1992. Hansal Mehta started work on the project with Deepak Segal (producer) and Priya Jhavar (executive producer) and the creative team. Pratik Gandhi who played Harshad Mehta had to undergo a body transformation to gain 18 Kgs to fit into the character with double-chin and big belly. 

The Fact:

More than three decades ago, Harshad Mehta (HM) was a familiar name on the Dalal Street. In 1992, the infamous Bombay-based stock broker's scam was exposed, bringing an end to his bull run and revealing gaping loopholes in India's financial banking sector. The Post-economic liberalisation era witnessed one of the biggest scams exposing HM and throwing Banking system and stock market into turmoil. 

Harshad Shantilal Mehta was born in a Gujarati Jain family of modest means. His early childhood was spent in Mumbai where his father was a small-time businessman; he started working as a dispatch clerk in a public sector general insurance company. Over the years his interest piqued in the stock markets. With brother Ashwin, who by then had left his job with a financial services company, he started investing heavily in stock market. As they learned the ropes of the trade, they went from boom to bust a couple of times and survived. Mehta gradually rose to become a stock broker in BSE who did very well for himself. At his peak, he lived like a moive star in a 15,000 square feet house, which had a swimming pook and golf patch. He had taste for flashy cars. He had 27 criminal charges brought against him, and was convicted of four, before his death at the age of 47 in 2001 due to cardiac arrest.  

His era witnessed many first.  It was the first billion dollar scam in India with the loss to banks stepping up to 5,000 crore rupees.  He was the first stock broker to feature on the cover of Business Magazine. It was the first time that a sitting PM was accused of personally accepting a bribe of Rupees 10000000 with Mehta alleging he paid the amount to secure his release. It was the first time lawyers in India started charging rupees 100000 for appearence.  It was the first time the stock market lost a trillion rupees i.e. rupees 1 lakh crore when it crashed in the scams aftermath. For the first time share prices of individual stocks touched the 5 figure mark ACC touched and all time high of rupees 10000 while SBI reached rupees 21000

Harshad Mehta, the key protagonist, has been painted by many as a hero, corruption and loot, especially of the banking system, has only gotten worse. So, there are obviously people who think he should have had his fun and been allowed to keep manipulating stocks without interference. Indian's still have a high level of tolerance to corruption and wrongdoing -  only the loyalty keep shifting from who or which party is doing it.