Ok.
Yesterday when I posted a brief description of the incident, I was waiting to check out of the hotel and leave to Bangalore.
After I posted it, I got a call that the VP is ready to meet me. I met him and then left Hyderbad and reached home late in the night.
Lot of you have made very valid suggestions and asked some questions
I will explain the full story here and I hope it answers many of your questions.
There are 4 parties this situation.
1. Me. The totally innocent party and probably the most affected mentally.
2. The hotel
3. The movie producer
4. The Psycho and his cousin/friend/: the costume designer (who is innocent as of now).
According to CCTV footage it can be clearly seen that I reached the hotel's parking lot at 10:58 am. I didnt check in even though I had just driven non-stop for 6 hours. I first cleaned the front of the car as bug splatters are acidic and can damage the paint easily. This is visible in the CCTV footage. I open the boot of the car, take out my spray of Pro Klear Waterless, a couple of microfibre cloths, clean the bumper, the number plate, the hood.
Before that, I took a couple of pics to show how amazing the hood looks even after a 590 km drive!
I cleaned the car and then checked in to the hotel.
After lunch, I went for a drive around Ramoji Film City and returned by 2:45 and parked my car.
At 3:45 or so, the black Micra pulls in and the psycho stays back in the car while the Costume Designer (hereafter referred to as "CD") goes towards the hotel.
He stays in the parking lot till 3:54 and can be seen scratching my car, a white Range Rover Evoque (belonging to the producer) and a couple of other cars. Later on we found out that one more car belonging to our company was scratched. My Bangalore colleague's Ford Figo Aspire had the same X X X X marks as my car, the Evoque and a couple of other cars.
I do not know why, but I think I came to take something from the car at 4:15. I left the conference while it was going on, went to my room, got my car key and came to the car. The moment I saw the big scratch on the hood, my heart stopped. And then when I examined the car I saw the scratches.
I raised hell at the hotel and the front office manager, the GM, the head of security everyone was called and they came and saw the car. I gave the Front Office Manager 15 minutes to give me an update.
In 15 minutes, I was taken up to the security room and we reviewed the CCTV footage. It is clear what happens.
After that because I was very firm and steadfast, the GM got involved too and the police were called. The police came by 7:10 or so. That was when I also met the GM for the first time and he spoke very nicely to me and assured me he would "take care of me 200%".
Later that night, we met the producer of the movie and found out that it was his Evoque which was scratched. He says that the psycho was mentally retarded and they had never met him before. The CD of course works for them. They were afraid of taking any action on the psycho as they felt the CD could abscond and he had already been paid in advance. More than that, their entire shoot schedule would go haywire.
I told the GM on Sunday night that we would like to meet the VP and get a proper solution. He said the GM will come on Monday morning to the hotel and we can meet him.
On Sunday morning, I kept waiting and initially I was told the VP may not come to the hotel today as he has gone to the corporate office.
I went down to the security office, got my copy of the CCTV footage.
As I was finishing up with them, the GM called and said the VP is coming.
I go down to the lobby, meet the VP and then we sit down for a meeting.
Consisting of the VP, Mr. Sudhakar Babu, another VP Finance, Mr. , the GM and a bunch of other people from the hotel management (maybe the management of the company that runs the hotel). Along with them, the producer, his director and his team and me.
A lot of things were said, some of which have no relevance to this matter.
Basically I made it clear to them that I will not be spending one rupee on my car. I expect the hotel to pay for it or the hotel to catch the culprit and make him pay for it.
As I said earlier, my expectation is only for the hotel to pay for the repainting job. As of now, the hotel guys are speaking very well. Well trained people to do some hand-holding. Whether this translates to action remains to be seen.
I was very clear to the VP that till now they have been talking all the right things but I hope they will act well as well.
The problem is that the producer is a regular at Ramoji Film City, so the management doesnt want to piss him off. So, when he asked them to hold off on taking action against the CD, they obliged.
The scene as of now is that today evening (tuesday evening), the CD will be handing over the costumes to the production unit. After that, the police can catch him and ask him to give details of the psycho. And what action happens after that, remains to be seen.
Yes, this is not ideal, but keep in mind I am not in control of the situation. I HAD to come back to Bangalore and my team is checking out today, as we speak.
As of now, our company owes them a large amount of money for the conference. So, I have instructed my team to not clear the full payment. We will withhold some amount and clear the rest.
This action actually goes against all our principles. Our company is known to never delay payment and this action really makes me feel guilty on one level but it's the only way I will have some leverage.
These are the facts.
Coming to probabilities and action that could have been taken.....
1. Police were involved from the hotel's side. I am not a localite and I wouldnt have been taken seriously. I have no influence in that area. The hotel does.
2. Though police are involved, I highly doubt they will do anything. Yes, we have CCTV footage, etc etc... but let us be serious for a moment. The Indian police are known to extremely over-worked. Will they really worry about a couple of high end cars that have been scratched? The CCTV footage while making it clear that damage has happened is not good enough to identify the vandal.
3. There is a suspicion that there might be a pending issue between the producer and the CD. And that is why he targeted us as he must have assumed all KA vehicles are linked to the producer.
4. The producer and his team say there is no issue. They say the psycho who came with the CD was mentally disturbed or unbalanced. They met him for the first time on Sunday at lunch time when he and the CD went to the set for lunch. After that, the vandalism has happened.
Best Case Favourable Solution:
Hotel pays for a full repaint of my car as that is the only way I can get perfect paint matching.
Hotel also pays for a new kit of Kamikaze Miyabi and ISM so that I can get my car detailed again.
Hotel pays labour charges for detailing.
How much will this whole thing come up to? Probably 1.5-2.00 lakhs depending on how much TAFE will quote. If it is lesser, so be it! I am not interested in making the hotel pay unnecessarily.
I am not asking for compensation for loss in resale value, loss of factory paint, or compensation for inconvenience of leaving my car for 8-10 days at the workshop, running around using cabs and Ubers....
I think I am being reasonable in what I am requesting.
In any case, I look forward to them getting back to me.
If anyone here can help me in escalating my case to the higher-ups in Ramoji Film City, I will be obliged. Or if someone is uncomfortable involving me, just inform the higher management of what has happened. I hope that can help me.