After days of sparring, actors Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut have taken their battle to courts, each slapping on the other legal notices making nasty allegations.
42-year-old Hrithik, who was the first to send the legal notice to his "Krrish 3" co-star, has demanded that Kangana apologise in a press conference and clear the air about their alleged affair which he firmly refutes.
A defiant Kangana, 28, said she was not a "dim-witted" teenager and refused to apologise. She instead shot off a counter-notice to Hrithik warning him to take back his notice or face a criminal case.
The charges and counter-charges, which earlier were flying across in social media, are now contained in two legal notices - first issued by Hrithik seeking an apology from Kangana for allegedly referring to him as her "silly ex" in an interview, and the second sent by her charging him with a clumsy attempt to cover up their relationship.
"Since quite sometime you (Kangana) have been insinuating and trying to create an image within the film industry through print and social media and in public at large that there was some relationship between our client (Hrithik) and you," the notice sent by Hrithik's advocate Deepesh Mehta on February 26 said.
"Our client states that it is needless to mention that there was no relationship between him and you. You are trying to propagate a false idea and thereby gain publicity with ulterior motives and malafide intentions," Hrithik's four-page notice claimed.
In her 21-page reply on March 1, Kangana said, "She is not some dim-witted teenager who has been smitten and that whatever happened between the two of them was with full consent of both parties."
"It is pertinent to record that your client throughout supported my client and fully involved her. He also did not make any attempt to block her. There is no communication from him to my client objecting to an emails. This proves that he received the emails with his participation and consent," her notice said.
Kangana's lawyer Rizwan Siddique told PTI, "Hrithik doing anything like this is the silliest thing he could have ever done. He has made a fool of himself. It's been more than seven days we haven't got any reply from them."
"We are waiting for them to react to the notice first as we have the facts and law on our side," he said. Hrithik's lawyer said he does not want to comment at the moment on being asked about Kangana's
notice.
In his notice, Hrithik contended that he and Kangana acted only in two films and besides professional relationship there wasn't any social, personal, platonic and/or intimate relation between them.
According to Hrithik's notice, the duo met on May 24, 2014 at Karan Johar's birthday bash when Kangana approached the actor and thanked him for sending her an email appreciating her work in 'Queen'.
"To this, our client told you that he has not seen the movie yet. Our client further clarified to you that the email ID from which you received the mail was not his and he gave you his real email ID," the notice said, adding that the actor has already lodged a complaint with the Cyber Cell of the city police about the said fake email ID in December, 2014.
"On coming to know of Hrithik's real email ID, you (Kangana) sent a barrage of emails to him. Our client tried to ignore all the emails (total 1439) to him even though it amounted to mental harassment and stress.
"Besides sending emails to our client you have also been telling people in the film industry about your affair with him and then called our client a 'silly ex'," the notice said.
On her part, Kangana claimed that Hrithik had himself provided her the email ID on which they were corresponding with each other till May 2014.
"My client (Kangana) states that it was Hrithik who wanted to communicate from a newly created ID because of his impending divorce. In an effort to safeguard his name, image and reputation your client (Hrithik) time and again malafidely and in mischief hacked my client's email ID and deleted all the mails sent by him," Kangana in her notice said.
Hrithik alleged that during the outdoor shoot of 'Krrish 3' Kangana in a drunken stupor created a scene in front of him and that her sister Rangoli later apologised. "Your sister told my client that you are suffering from Asperger's Syndrome and requested him to not tell anyone. Our client kept his word till date," the notice said.
Hrithik has further alleged that Kangana had also got in touch with his father Rakesh Roshan who also conveyed that the actor was not interested in her. The actor has demanded that Kangana apologise within seven days of receipt of the legal notice or else face criminal action for defamation.
Refuting all the allegations levelled against her, Kangana has claimed that she was not a stranger to Hrithik or his family members.