Famous Tollywood dance choreographer Sheikh Jani Basha aka Jani Master has also worked in several hit movies in Tamil including “Arabikkuthu” and “Ranjithame” for Thalapathy Vijay and “Kaavalaa” for Superstar Rajinikanth’s ‘Jailer’. The National Award was announced to him for choreographing the hit song ‘Megam Karukatha’ from the award winning ‘Thiruchitrambalam’ movie featuring Nithya Menen and Dhanush.
It is well known that Jani is in jail having been arrested on September 19th by the Hyderabad Raidurgam police. A 21-year-old female dancer who was part of Johnny Master’s troupe accused him of raping her repeatedly since 2019 when she was a minor. The dance choreographer who is married and has two children has been arrested him under the POCSO Act and also been charged under sections 376 (2) (punishment for sexual assault), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.
Meanwhile, the Rangareddy district court in Hyderabad granted Jani conditional bail to attend the National Awards Ceremony to be held on October 8th. However, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has announced that the award announced to him has been suspended and the invitation to the ceremony is being withdrawn due to the seriousness of the allegations leveled against him.
A part of the letter from the government body reads “In view of the seriousness of the allegation and the matter being subjudice, the competent authority has decided to suspend the National Film Award of the Best Choreography for the Year 2022 to Shri Shaik Jani Basha for the film Thiruchitrambalam until further order.”