The controversy surrounding the web series Show Stopper has intensified as MH Films, the production house backing it, has filed a police complaint against actor Digangana Suryavanshi, alleging cheating and criminal breach of trust under IPC Section 420 and Section 406. The complaint asserts that she falsely claimed to secure Akshay Kumar and his company as presenters for the project.
Furthermore, MH Films has issued a defamation notice to actor Rakesh Bedi and Suryavanshi’s fashion designer, Krishan Parmar. They’ve been accused of making false public statements about OTT platform’s unwillingness to collaborate, which allegedly damaged the project’s reputation. They also reportedly misled the media by stating that the project was shelved and payments were withheld.
Speaking to News18 Showsha earlier, Show Stopper director Manish Harishankar had said, “I just want to state on record that all the speculations and rumours made about the payments are not true. In fact, we have hundred percent cleared the lead actors’ payments and the production’s payments are also clear by 90-95 percent.”
Advocate Falguni Brahmbhatt, representing MH Films and Harishankar also confirmed these developments. She also noted that Suryavanshi allegedly attempted to extort a significant amount of money in cash, threatening serious consequences for Harishankar if her demands were not met. This threat has been reported to the police, who have been requested to take action based on the complaint.
In a report to the police, Harishankar stated, “… during the making and after the completion of the said web series, the proposed accused kept telling me that she knows superstars like Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, and as she has personal relations with them, she would be in a position to rope in such popular actors to be the presenters of the said web series initially.”
Suryavanshi reportedly flew down to Ajmer along with one of Harishankar’s staff member and editor Biren Mohanti on MH Films’ expense where she met Kumar. “My editor carried the iPad, which contained entire footages of the web series… She insisted that that he should handover the iPad with the entire 16 episodes of the web series. After that, she told my editor to wait outside (hotel room) as she said that she will go alone and have a meeting with Akshay Kumar, and on the pretext of showing the footage/clips of the web series, she took the iPad from my staff and till date has never returned us back,” the director stated in the report.
He added that he presumes she has transferred ‘the valuable material pertaining to the web series’ and may have ‘misused the same for her personal benefits’. Apparently, Suryavanshi also demanded about six crores from the production house stating that this amount has to be paid to Kumar ‘as full final payment towards naming being used in the series as a presenter’.
On a related note, Zeenat Aman is all set to make her onscreen comeback with Show Stopper. Shot across Bhopal, Indore and Mumbai, the web series is based on the taboo subject of bra fittings and how almost 80 percent of women in the world end up wearing the wrong sized bra for the entire duration of their life which leads to serious health concerns. Touted to be a matured love story, it will see Aman and Kiran Kumar along with Zarina Wahab, Shweta Tiwari and Sourabh Raaj Jain in pivotal roles.
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