Indian film producer Bharat Shah - one the biggest film financiers in the Mumbai film industry - has announced fresh plans to invest in Indian films.

The move came on the day he was given a one year prison sentence for withholding information from police about the criminal underworld muscling in on one of his films. However, he is now a free man having already spent 14 months in jail awaiting his trial.

Shah announced that he going to produce a Hindi film based on his trial to expose how Indian politicians and police dealt with him.

He also investing in two other films: Dil Churake Chal Diye and Hum Panchi Ek Dal Ke.

Shah is also financing filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma's international venture Ek which was launched in Cannes 2003.

Shah was ordered by the trial judge to return the money he and his firm Mega Bollywood made from Hindi film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke and deposit it in the government treasury.

Shah, who was arrested on January 8, 2001 on allegations of his nexus with the underworld, had hired some of the top-paid lawyers in the country spending over $10m in lawyers' fees.