Film producer gets ‘casting couch’ threat from actress!

Bhubaneswar: Less than a month after Odia Television actress Sharmistha Priyadarshini brought casting couch allegations against six persons in the Ollywood industry, film producer Rajesh Ranjan Pati on Thursday alleged that an actress is threatening to level casting couch allegation against him if he demands the money paid to her to work in a film back.

Addressing the media, Pati alleged that whenever he spoke to Upasana Mohanty to get his money back, the actress has threatened to implicate him in a false case of casting couch.

“Actress Upasana Mohanty had signed for my film ‘Gudia Rani’ in September 2015. A token amount was paid to her as advance. The film was scheduled to be completed in 45 days. But due to unavoidable reasons, we could not proceed with the project. Now whenever I call her over phone to ask her to return the amount, she threatens me that she will implicate me on casting couch charges. Since past several months, I have been requesting her to return my money. Most of the time she also abuses me over phone,” Pati said.

The film producer also alleged that Upasana is also threatening to kill his family members if he pursues the matter further.

“She has threatened more than 10 times to wipe out my entire family, if I demand my money back. I even suggested that she keeps the token money paid to her and return the rest, but she is not agreeing,” said Pati.

On the other hand, terming the allegations false, Upasana has a different tale to tell.

“All the allegations made against me are false. Does he have any proof that I had taken money from him for the film? In fact, I am yet to get some amount from him. The funniest part is that I have not spoken to him since past one year. How did I threaten him?” asked she.

Pati also alleged that Babli Kiran and Pranay Jethi, the co-producers of the film, are not cooperating with him in the matter.