Students up in arms against Kothrud based acting academy, allege they’ve been duped

Pune: A complaint has been registered against a Kothrud-based acting institute, Miracle Academy of Arts and Media Private Limited, after a bunch of its students filed a private complaint, saying that the institute had allegedly cheated them by charging hefty fees on the pretext of roping in big celebrities to teach them lessons in acting. 

A complaint in this regard was registered by Sandip Gaikwad, a 22-year-old youth, an aspiring actor, and his fellow classmates at the Shivajinagar court. Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Ayub Shaikh has passed an order and has directed the police to register a case and investigate the matter. 
While speaking to dna, one of the students, Dhanraj Kajale, said, “We had taken admission for a six-months course in 2013. At that time, the academy’s owners —Pramod Prabhulkar and Madhurani Prabhulkar—had mentioned in the admission brochure that noted celebrities such as Sachin Pilgaonkar, Bharat Jadhav and Ashutosh Gowarikar among others will be roped in to teach them acting. They even promised to give us breaks in some of their home productions, which never happened.” 
According to Gaikwad, every student has paid Rs60,000 to Rs70,000 as the enrollment fee. 
“We then approached the Kothrud police station, the cops refused to lodge our complaint. We then approached the court and lodged a private complaint,” he said. 
Advocate Milind Pawar, who is representing the students, confirmed that the court has directed the police to investigate the case. 
Senior police inspector, Kalyan Vidhate of Kothrud police station, said that they have received the order and they will lodge a complaint against the academy. 
Pramod Prabhulkar of Miracle Academy said the students who had lodged the complaint had just passed out from the institute and were out to tarnish the school’s image.