Thirty former employees of actor and producer Sachiin Joshi's company Viiking Ventures have alleged non-payment of salaries amounting to Rs 31 lakh which they claim they haven’t received even months after quitting. Sachiin has dismissed the claims as "arm-twisting tactics". 

Reports state that according to the former employees, Viiking Ventures, of which Sachiin is the chairman, and its digital media wing, Think Tank, withheld salaries from as early as March 2019. The employees also claimed that the management is not responding to their queries about the non-payment of their dues. 

Taskeen Naik, who had joined as the social media head and public relations officer in April 2018, said she is owed salary for two months. She quit her job in May 2019. She said in a statement, "When I raised the issue with him (Joshi) personally, he blocked me. I mailed him as well as the HR who told me they have some fund issues as they’re going through a crisis. Then even that communication stopped. It has been a year and they’re just ignoring us." 

While Ganapathy Ramachandran, who joined Think Tank as a creative director in May 2019 said, "They were saying that they intend to pay. But 30 former employees are owed around 30 lakhs in total. They all joined and quit at different times. Some people’s salaries are due for almost two years."

In an interview with PTI, Joshi said he is an entrepreneur who takes care of "over a 1000 families" and won’t accept "arm-twisting tactics of disgruntled employees". The former employees said that Sachiin's claims are just an attempt to "buy more time". They said while the actor is stepping up to help people affected with Covid-19, they should also be paid for the work they did.