Alia Bhatt, Soni Razdan receive death threats, Mahesh Bhatt lodges police complaint

Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt has received a death threat from an unidentified caller who has demanded a sum of Rs 50 lakh to be deposited in a Lucknow-based bank branch. According to reports, the caller has claimed that failure on Mahesh's part to meet their demand would result in the death of his actress daughter Alia Bhatt and wife Soni Razdan.

An ANI tweet confirmed that Bhatt filed a complaint in the Juhu Police station following the death threat.

Complaint filed in Juhu Police Station after Mahesh Bhatt receives extortion call,caller also threatened to kill Soni Razdan and Alia Bhatt pic.twitter.com/q8UaCbQTmh

— ANI (@ANI_news) March 2, 2017

Mahesh also took to Twitter early this morning to say that the extortion attempt was "nipped in the bud", all thanks to the MP and UP police.

A bolt from the blue in the form of an extortion call & threat to my family was nipped in the bud by the MH & UP police in tandem.Gratitude!

— Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) March 2, 2017

According to reports, Bhatt received a threat call on February 26, which was initially believed to be a prank call. A series of text messages and WhatsApp messages followed the call and a person claiming to be a gang leader threatened that if he failed to pay up, the person would fire rounds of bullets at daughter Alia and wife Soni.

Fearing for the safety of his family, Bhatt filed a case on Wednesday under section 387 (causing a person to fear death or grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion).

This threat comes two years after a group of 13 people were arrested on November 2014 for plotting to kill Mahesh Bhatt.