In an unprecedented swoop down on big names in the Kannada film industry, the Income Tax Department on Thursday morning began search and seizure operations against eight of the fraternity — four leading actors, three producers of big budget films, and a key distributor.

The targets of Thursday’s operations are: Puneeth Rajkumar and Shivarajkumar, sons of the late Dr. Rajkumar; two other leading stars of Kannada cinema Sudeep and Yash; Vijay Kiragandur, producer of the latest hit KGF; Rockline Venkatesh and C.R. Manohar, who recently helmed mega-budget films, and key distributor Jayanna.

Though people from the Kannada film industry have come under the I-T scanner earlier, Thursday’s was the biggest such operation and most of the big actors were facing the I-T heat for the first time. Search operations were targeted at the recent mega-budget films, sources said.

The search continued till late into the night on a total of 28 premises linked to the eight individuals, all in Bengaluru. They are expected conclude operations by Friday evening. Sleuths said gold jewellery and several property documents have been recovered, but refused to give specifics.

While the rest were at home, Sudeep and Yash were out of town when the I-T sleuths began operations. They cut short their visits — Sudeep from Mysuru, where he was shooting for a film, and Yash, from Mumbai, where he was promoting his latest film KGF — and returned home. Speaking to media persons, both actors said that the search operation was part of a routine procedure and they would cooperate with the authorities as they had “nothing to fear”.