Mumbai: Vivek Agnihotri denied allegations of “misbehaviour and/or harassment” levelled by actor Tanushree Dutta Thursday, saying the claims “have been borne with an intent to attract publicity and wreak personal vendetta” against the filmmaker. Agnihotri’s lawyer Nidhish Mehrotra said the team has sued Dutta on the charge of defamation.
“The allegations levelled against my client Mr Vivek Agnihotri by Ms Tanushree Dutta for misbehaviour and/or harassment are absolutely false, frivolous and vexatious. These allegations are deliberate and have been borne with an intent to attract publicity and wreak personal vendetta against my client with mala-fide intentions. “On the instruction of my client, we have served a legal notice to initiate defamation action against her,” Dutta also issued a statement saying she was slapped with two legal notices – one from Agnihotri and another from Nana Patekar.
In a recent TV interview, Dutta alleged Patekar misbehaved with her when the two were shooting a special song for “Horn Ok Pleassss” 10 years ago, a claim she reiterated. Following the resurgence of the controversy, in an interview to a leading daily, she accused Agnihotri of behaving inappropriately with her during the making of 2005 film “Chocolate”, which he directed. The film also starred Irrfan Khan, Arshad Warsi, Suniel Shetty and Emraan Hashmi.
The statement by Agnihotri’s lawyer further said all the news agencies that have engaged in unethical and immoral conduct to promote sensational journalism without any diligence or proper verification and with the intent of defaming his client.
