Shilpa Shinde faces legal notice for Bhabhi act

Shilpa Shinde, the leading lady of &TV’s fiction series, Bhabhi ji Ghar Par Hai has refused to report on the sets, leaving the producers of the show in a lurch. “The actress has also been bad mouthing the production house and the channel,” claims a source from the production house. Upset with her behaviour, the makers of the show have slapped a legal notice on her and also filed a formal complaint against her at Cine & Television Artistes’ Association (Cintaa).

Commenting on the issue, producer of the show, Benaifer Kohli says, “Shilpa’s claims that ‘we are not giving her the remuneration, because she has refused to abide by the exclusivity clause signed with us’ are baseless. In fact, Shilpa had entered into an agreement with us on September 2014 and the artist fee has been increased two times until now on her demand. Furthermore, she has breached her contractual terms by reporting late for shoots, ordering her own costumes while there was a designated leading designer for her. She has been arm-twisting us to give in to all her demands, which we readily did, even though such demands are contrary to the terms of the agreement she has entered into with us. Even then, she has been defaming us unnecessarily.”

Elaborating further on the exclusivity clause issue, Benaifer adds, “Shilpa wants us to allow her to take up projects on competing channels. When it was pointed out to her that the contract clearly stated an exclusivity clause, the actress blatantly said that she never had any intention to adhere to terms of exclusivity. Post this incident, she has been threatening to quit the show if we do not waiver the exclusivity clause. It has now reached a point where it cannot be tolerated anymore. She has made us fire our staff several times. She even took money to buy stuff like shoes, jewellery and makeup. We supported her in every manner and in turn we receive such false allegations.”

Reacting on the legal notice and the allegations levelled against her by the makers, Shilpa says, “I am not a newcomer. Why will I sign an exclusivity clause in the first place? I am sure I did not sign any such thing. They are showing me some paragraph and claiming that I have signed the exclusivity clause. But that’s not true. I am sure they have forged the contract papers to frame me. How can they say that I have not been reporting on the sets? They themselves have been scouting for my replacement and didn’t even inform me about the shoots. They were behind my life to play the character when other actors were not ready to play the part. They forced me to come on board. If I was so full of tantrums why did they take me on for the show?”

The actress adds, “I gave my soul to the show. Their allegations are upsetting indeed. Let them say what they have to. I want to see how low they will stoop. They can’t force me into anything. I haven’t even signed Kapil’s show. I don’t know how they have been accusing me of breaching the clause. How can I work with them in this condition? I don’t want to say anything more. I will also seek legal help.”