DEC
15: It's probably Bollywood’s first big papparazzi strike.
Raking up a
heated debate on India’s privacy laws and their purview, a Mumbai
tabloid today published photographs of Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapur
sharing a kiss at Rain, a well-known suburban nightspot in Mumbai.
‘Bollywood’s
hottest young couple have evidently decided, Jab pyaar kiya to
darna kya. We found Kapur and Kapoor liplocked at a party...’ read
the report. Hours later, the stars were on record hotly denying the
incident, claiming the pictures were morphed. They said they have
slapped legal notices on the publication—Mid-Day—and asked its
editor to issue an unconditional apology or face a Rs 20-crore
defamation suit.
Mid-Day
editor Aakar Patel though is firm that he won’t issue any apology,
saying the stills were actually taken from a video clip. ‘‘There are
no pictures but a video so there is no question of morphing,’’ he
says, adding that his newspaper would fight the legal battle as the
celebrities were public figures.
‘‘I have sued
them and those pictures are morphed, done on the Internet, and put on
a cellphone and sent to everybody on MMS. Mid-Day has taken the
pictures out of that and carried it as if we were in Rain (the
nightclub). Anyway, legal action has been taken. My lawyers are going
to get it cleared,’’ said Kareena.
Shahid is also
believed to have sent a notice to the publication. ‘‘I’m extremely
hurt. Our families were emotionally traumatised. We have not visited
Rain in the past three months,’’ he said. (The Express News
Service)
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