{ bollyw ood mir a ge }
Taneja was a rotund man who mum-
bled when he talked and had no stage charisma. But friends and family were accustomed to him grabbing the spot- light, and this summer night in 2007 would be no exception. He beamed with pride as the movie played. There was no glimpse of the steep downward spiral his fortunes would take in just a few months, with lives left in ruins, the Indian community betrayed, Taneja in federal prison, and a $150 million bank- ruptcy case that is far from resolved. When the film was over, guests milled
around the tiny lobby nibbling on samo- sas. They politely congratulated the host, but everyone could see the movie — with a wooden young star and a meandering plot — was hardly hit material. “It was heavy on everybody’s mind:
‘Hey, this is not a great movie. What is he going to do? He is going to lose his shirt,’ ” recalled one guest, who has a prominent job in the Indian communi- ty and did not want to be identified. “It was surprising, because we had heard so much about it. It was a letdown.” Taneja had spent at least $10 million. At the time, it seemed like a lot of money.
T
he palace rose on Summit Drive in a quiet Fairfax County subdivision near Centreville. First trucks arrived, clogging
the narrow streets to deliver loads of concrete blocks and marble, disgorging the contents upon what would become a sweeping circular driveway. It was 2005, and the local real estate
market was in a frenzy. Property values were rising by double digits each year, and homes were snapped up after hours on the market. Teardowns were com- mon. Even so, the sheer scope of this project — a 21,000-square-foot house with a swimming pool, tennis court and sweeping arches evoking temple archi- tecture — was jaw-dropping. “We called it the Taj Mahal,” said
a bemused neighbor. The community buzzed: Who was this guy? Taneja, who declined to be inter-
viewed for this article, is the son of an Indian diplomat and immigrated to the United States with his family while he was still a teen, according to court documents and interviews with family
members. He started working in the banking industry while still in college and ultimately founded a mortgage company, Financial Mortgage, in 1990. He and his wife, Deepti, sent their
three daughters to private school and joined a large Hindu temple, Rajdhani Mandir in Chantilly, funneling as much as $50,000 in donations over the years. Taneja became the de facto head of a large, extended clan that included his elderly parents, according to Shafiq Ah- mad, a Northern Virginia restaurateur and friend of Taneja’s. “He was top of that family,” Ahmad explained. “He had a lot of responsibilities.”
‘‘ 24 The WashingTon PosT Magazine | june 6, 2010
Taneja also had a yearning for glam-
our that set him apart from the thou- sands of Indian immigrants who made their way to Northern Virginia during those years, drawn by high-tech jobs along the Dulles Corridor and good public school systems. He formed his own entertainment
firm, Elite Entertainment, and began producing U.S. tours for Bollywood stars. The actors, adorned in glittery costumes, would lip-synch to songs from popular films as pyrotechnics blazed. When the shows stopped at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Taneja would seize the microphone to serve as master
He kept adding things [to the mansion]. ‘How about a pool? How about a theater?'…
He just wanted to have it.” Ali Gharai, who designed and built the Tanejas’ home
PHOTOGRAPH ABOVE BY LOIS RAIMONDO; PAGE 22: PHOTOGRAPH BY DOMINIC BRACCO II; PAGE 23: PHOTOGRAPH BY HECTOR EMANUEL
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