Bhubaneswar: It’s a curious case of role reversals, - at least as it seems. A movie producer in Odisha has alleged that a female actor threatened him with casting couch allegations over a pending financial issue. Rajesh Ranjan Pati, the movie producer, alleged on Friday that actor Upasana Mohanty roped in for his Odia-Telugu bilingual film Gudia Rani had received an advance amount. As the project could not make much headway was shelved midway, he asked her to refund a portion of the money as per the agreement. The artiste, however, blatantly refuse to oblige, he said.
“I had signed actor Upasana Mohanty for movie project Gudia Rani in September 2015. She had also received an advance to work in the project. The project had to be shelved due to unavoidable circumstances. Now, even though I am trying to get back the money paid to Upasana, she refuses to pay me back. Instead, she threatens to level casting couch allegations and verbally abuses me,” Mr Pati told reporters here on Friday.
“I had invested Rs 21 lakh in the movie, but it was never completed on time. Now, whenever I ask them to return me my money, they threaten to kill me and my family. They are also trying to implicate me in a casting couch through Upasana. If I get into any trouble over this, co-producer Babli Kiran, Shankar Goud, Upasana Mohanty and her parents Manorama Mohanty and Arabinda Mohanty should be held responsible,” said Mr Pati.
