Sandalwood in drug spectre, but movie body says rubbish

For more than a decade, drugs -- especially chemical substances -- have been normalised in the film industry. A day after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) registered a case against late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, the Bureau busted a racket in Bengaluru that supplied drugs to Sandalwood celebrities.

Actress Kangana Ranaut, in her latest tweets, had revealed that the most popular drug in the film industry is cocaine, and Bengaluru has now become the hotspot for cocaine. Last month, several foreign nationals including Nigerian and Omani nationals were arrested by the excise officials on charges of attempting to smuggle drugs from Bengaluru to Hyderabad.

The NCB on Thursday arrested the drugs racket kingpin D Anika, who was a former television actress and two of her associates named M Anoop and R Ravindran. The NCB had seized a large haul of drugs from the arrested. The NCB revealed that the three-some were supplying drugs to prominent musicians and top actors in Karnataka and the crème de la crème of the society.

While the NCB has clearly exposed the drug connection to Sandalwood, the Karnataka Cine Artistes' Association claimed that the film industry in the state in the last 35 years remained clean in so far as narcotic drugs was concerned. According to NCB officials the drug kingpin R Ravindra's had saved 2,000 contact numbers saved in his mobile, among whom are 10 top Kannada actors and top musicians. The NCB did not reveal who the top actors and musicians.

Karnataka Cine Artistes' Association and producer secretary Rockline Venkatesh said , "For the first time Sandalwood is being linked to drugs. This is unfortunate. That said, I have never heard of the industry people involved in drugs. I have been in this industry for the last 35 years, and the use of drugs never came to my notice. Some people who appear in one or two films and pretend to be popular actors and tarnish the image of the industry."