Mumbai, August 30
Decks were today cleared for the release of film “Choti Si Love Story” with Mumbai High Court rejecting the plea of actress Manisha Koirala to delete “objectionable” scenes in which her duplicate had been used.
Koirala had filed a suit in the High Court to challenge the final version of the film on the ground that producer Shashilal Nair had committed a breach of contract by using her double in “objectionable” scenes.
She took out a notice of motion praying for the deletion of scenes. The motion was today rejected with costs, while the suit is still pending. The court had earlier restrained the producer from releasing the film until further orders.
Justice
F. I. Rebello, after viewing part of the film, held that the impugned scenes were integral part of the film. He was of the opinion that the scenes were neither vulgar nor projected Koirala in bad light. They were also not defamatory, he felt.
Nair contended in an affidavit that the film was seen and approved by Koirala twice and it was at her instance that a duplicate was used in the film because she had become obese.
Koirala denied the allegation that she had become obese and argued that the film contained
vulgar scenes shot using her duplicate. This amounted to defamation and depicted falsehood besides violating her right to privacy.
The producer said he had offered the actress to pay 50 per cent of the cost of the film (Rs 2.5 crore) so that he could replace her with someone else and reshoot the movie. But she declined the offer. Nair said Koirala had earlier agreed for a duplicate in objectionable scenes and hence could not raise a grievance now for cuts in the film.
PTI
