The ‘Hollywood Con Queen’ gets a new documentary from Apple TV Plus

Before AI meant you could impersonate someone’s voice with just a snippet of audio, con artists needed actual skill to impersonate famous figures. Take Hargobind Tahilramani, who allegedly impersonated such powerful Hollywood women as Amy Pascal, Kathleen Kennedy, and Wendi Deng Murdoch. Now, it’s a documentary from Tiger King’s Chris Smith.

The scam artist dubbed “the Con Queen of Hollywood” sent victims to Indonesia, then extracted cash for what seemed like normal expenses, promising reimbursements. The reimbursements never appeared. Scott Johnson at The Hollywood Reporter first broke the story in 2018, then followed it, eventually writing a book. The Apple TV Plus documentary is based on that work. It premieres on May 8th.

In 2020, Tahilramani was arrested in the UK, where he was using the name “Gobind Tahil.” In addition to allegedly perpetrating the extremely sophisticated scam, he was also building a career as an Instagram influencer in London. When working as an influencer, Tahilramani also allegedly told people he was an HBO executive or Netflix employee, according to Vanity Fair. In 2023, a UK judge ruled he could be extradited to the US.

Part of what made the Con Queen so convincing was the voice. The scammer sometimes pretended to be a male assistant before transferring to the powerful woman he was impersonating. Apparently, the scammer also “lured men into phone sex,” according to Vanity Fair.

The Apple documentary isn’t the only project that centers on the scam. A movie called Kiss of the Con Queen starring Ravi Patel is also in the words.