MUMBAI, Dec. 1 -- More than two decades after Maharashtra first dreamt of bringing anti-caste social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule's life to the screen, the project has taken a dramatic turn: key files relating to the biopic have disappeared from Mantralaya, prompting police to register an FIR and launch a probe into possible tampering of public records. The Directorate General of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR) reported the matter to the police, stating that contract papers, administrative notings and other crucial documents connected to the Phule biopic were found missing. These documents include files dating from January 1, 2017 to March 31, 2020, a period during which the state floated tenders, saw change in governments, and faced the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea of producing a feature film on the anti-caste reformer dates back to 2003, when Congress-NCP government approved the concept. But the project faltered repeatedly across political regimes. After lying dormant for years, the Congress-NCP government handed the film's production to the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). Yet for 11 years, not a single frame was shot. In 2016, the BJP-Shiv Sena government withdrew the project from NFDC and called for fresh tenders in 2018, eventually selecting Eloquence Media Pvt Ltd as the producer. The contract estimated a production cost of Rs.20 crore, required completion within a year, and included a penalty clause for delays. The biopic was designed for OTT platforms. However, soon after the 2019 assembly elections brought a change of guard in Maharashtra, and with the pandemic following shortly after, the already-delayed project stalled yet again. According to the police, the disappearance of files likely occurred sometime between 2017 and 2020. The complaint was filed by Sagar Kumar Kamble, a senior assistant director at DGIPR, who also worked with the state's documentary division. Kamble told police that he learnt of the contract file's existence in October 2025; but when he tried to trace it, only a photocopy surfaced. The original, complete with notings and correspondence, could not be found. A wider internal search confirmed that entire sections of the file, including those most critical to the tendering process, were missing. He was then authorised to lodge a formal complaint. "We have registered a case against unknown persons for destroying or disposing of public records," said a police officer. The case has been filed under sections 8 and 9 of the Maharashtra Public Records Act, 2005....