Cousin accuses Jeetendra of sexual assault; actor rubbishes charge

February 8, 2018

Mumbai, Feb 8: Actor Jeetendra was on Wednesday accused by his cousin of sexually assaulting her 47 years ago, a charge that the Sixties’ star rubbished as “baseless and ridiculous”.

The complainant said the actor, whose actual name is Ravi Kapoor, is her aunt’s son.

In her complaint to the Director General of Police, Himachal Pradesh, she said the incident took place in Shimla in January, 1971, when she was 18 and the actor was 28.

She said he had “arranged” for the victim to join him from New Delhi to Shimla on the sets of a film he was shooting for.

She alleged in the complaint that after reaching Shimla at night, an inebriated Jeetendra went to her room, joined two twin beds and sexually assaulted her.

The actor denied that any such incident had taken place.

Police sources here said an FIR had not been registered as the complaint had been emailed to the DGP.

For the registration of an FIR, the signature of the complainant was necessary, police sources said.

In a statement issued in Mumbai, Jeetendra’s advocate Rizwan Siddiquee said the allegation was “baseless and ridiculous”.

“Foremost, my client specifically and categorically denies any such incident. Besides even otherwise such baseless, ridiculous and fabricated claims cannot be entertained by any court of law or the law enforcement agencies after a span of almost 50 years,” it said.

Siddiquee said the law did not give any person “any rights or liberties of making any baseless... claims against any man publicly and seek to defame him with a hidden personal agenda”.

“The statute has provided a justice delivery system through the courts, and the Limitation Act 1963 was specifically enacted to ensure that all genuine complaints are made within a maximum time limit of three years, so that a proper investigation is carried out and timely justice is delivered,” it added.

It also questioned the timing of the complaint.

“In any event the timing of this baseless complaint seems to be nothing but a miserable effort made by a jealous competitor to disrupt the business activities of my client and his esteemed company. Such efforts are therefore in all fairness treated with the contempt it truly deserves,” it said.

The allegation by the woman, who said the actor was her father’s sister’s son, comes in the wake of a slew of accusations of sexual assault by actresses against American producer Harvey Weinstein and others in the entertainment business.

The 75-year-old actor, who featured as a hero in a host of Hindi films such as Farz, Caravan, Humjoli, Parichay and Kinara, is also a film producer. His daughter Ekta runs a production company, and son Tusshar is an actor.

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June 4,2020

Mumbai, Jun 4: Casting director Krish Kapur, who had worked on films like Mahesh Bhatt's Jalebi and Kriti Kharbanda-starrer Veere Ki Wedding, passed away at the age of 28 due to brain hemorrhage, his family said.

There was speculation that Kapur died in a road accident but his maternal uncle, Sunil Bhalla, dismissed the reports, saying that the casting director fainted at his home in suburban Mira Road here and suffered brain hemorrhage.

According to Bhalla, Kapur breathed his last on May 31.

"He had no medical history. He was healthy and doing absolutely fine. On May 31, he just collapsed and started to bleed. He died of brain hemorrhage," Bhalla said on Wednesday.

Kapur is survived by his mother, wife and seven-year-old child.

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May 29,2020

New Delhi, May 29: Actor Pooja Hegde revealed that her Instagram account was hacked after unflattering memes about her colleague Samantha Ruth Prabhu were shared.

Samantha's angry fans are not buying her explanation and it has prompted a Twitter trend #PoojaMustApologizeSamantha.

On Monday night, Pooja put out a tweet that her Instagram had been hacked and was in the process of being retrieved. She urged her fans to not accept any invitations or pass out any personal information to the person asking.

She wrote, "Hi guys, so I've been informed by my team that my insta account has been hacked and my digital team is helping me with it. Please do not accept any invitations or pass out any personal information out to the person asking. Thank you."

An hour later, which she spent "stressing," the 'Mohenjodaro' star tweeted again to say the account was restored and that all activity in the while it had been hacked would be undone.

"Spent the last hour stressing about the safety of my Instagram account. Thanking my technical team for instant help at this hour. Finally, got my hands back on my Instagram Any message, follow back or post in d past hour from my account has been done will be undone. Ty," tweeted Hegde.

The 29-year-old actor announced that her feed has been cleaned up now. Her most recent Instagram post is now one on pet food that she posted three days ago.

In Pooja's tweets, there is no mention of Samantha.

According to the screenshots that are being circulated over social media, a meme of Samantha was posted from Pooja's account. It read, "I don't find her pretty at all."

This tweet has triggered Samantha's fans who have not been pacified by her explanation and are demanding that Pooja apologise, meanwhile Pooja's fans say she has nothing to apologise for.

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February 10,2020

Feb 10: Bong Joon-ho’s film “Parasite” starts in a dingy, half-basement apartment with a family of four barely able to scratch out a life. There must be no place to go but up, right? Yes and no. There’s nothing predictable when the South Korean director is on his game.

This dark, socially conscious film about the intertwining of two families is an intricately plotted, adult thriller. We can go up, for sure, but Bong can also take us deeper down. There’s always an extra floor somewhere in this masterpiece.

It tells the story of the impoverished four-person Kim family who, one by one, and with careful and devious planning, all get employed by the four-person affluent Park family — as a tutor, an art teacher, a driver and a housekeeper. They are imposters stunned by the way wealth can make things easier: “Money is an iron. It smooths out all the creases,” says the Park patriarch with wonder.

Bong, who directed and wrote the story for “Parasite,” has picked his title carefully, of course. Naturally, he’s alluding to the sycophantic relationship by a clan of scammers to the clueless rich who have unwittingly opened the doors of their home on a hill. But it’s not that simple. The rich family seem incapable of doing anything — from dishes to sex — without help. Who’s scamming who?

Bong’s previous films play with film genres and never hide their social commentary — think of the environmentalist pig-caper “Okja” and the dystopian sci-fi global warming scream “Snowpiercer.” But this time, Bong’s canvas is a thousand times smaller and his focus light-years more intense. There are no CGI train chases on mountains or car chases through cities. (There is also, thankfully, 100% less Tilda Swinton, a frequent, over-the-top Bong collaborator.

The two Korean families first make contact when a friend of the Kim’s son asks him to take over English lessons for the Park daughter. Soon the son (a dreamy Choi Woo-sik) convinces them to hire his sister (the excellent Park So-dam) as an art teacher, but doesn’t reveal it’s his sis. She forges her diploma and spews arty nonsense she learned on the internet, impressing the polite but firm Park matriarch (a superb Jo Yeo-jeong.)

The Park’s regular chauffer is soon let go and replaced by the Kim patriarch (a steely Lee Sun-kyun). Ditto the housemaid, who is dumped in favor of the Kims’ mother (a feisty Jang Hye-jin.) All eight people seem happy with the new arrangement until Bong reveals a twist: There are more parasites than you imagined. The clean, impeccably furnished Park home will have some blood splashing about.

Bong’s trademark slapstick is still here but the rough edges of his often too-loud lessons are shaved down nicely and his actors step forward. “Keep it focused,” the Kim’s son counsels his father at one point. Bong has followed that advice.

There are typically dazzling Bong touches throughout. Just look for all the insect references — stink bugs at the beginning to flies at the end, and a preoccupation with odor across the frames. And there’s a scene in which the rich matriarch skillfully winds noodles in a bowl while, in another room, duct tape is being wrapped around a victim and classical music plays.

Bong could have been more strident in his social critique but hasn’t. There are no villains in “Parasite” — and also no heroes. Both families are forever broken after chafing against each other, a bleak message about the classes ever really co-existing (Take that, “Downton Abbey”).

“Parasite” is a worthy winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the first South Korean movie to win the prestigious top prize. The director has called it an “unstoppably fierce tragicomedy.” We just call it brilliant.

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