Actor Mandana Karimi who rose to fame after participating in has now made serious allegations on the producer of her upcoming film Koka Kola. The actor has alleged that producer Mahendra Dhariwal harassed her on the last day of the shoot and called her names. However, Dhariwal, in his statement denied the allegations and said that it was Mandana who behaved unprofessionally on the sets and forced him to intervene.
As published in Times of India, Mandana claimed that the producer came into her vanity van while she was changing and refused to leave. She said that he started yelling at her and accused her of blackmailing him.
Mandana explained, “This set had no director or assistants. There was a choreographer, a stylist and the producer was calling the shots, literally. It’s the strangest job I have done in my nine years in India. He started creating a scene on the set along with his son and calling me names. It’s unsettling how they have behaved with me as an artiste and as a woman.”
She added, “He started saying, ‘Humne paise diye hain, lekin tumko kaam nahi karna hai, paise bhi poore chahiye, blackmail karti hai.’ After my last take, I went to my vanity van and told my spot boy to not let anyone in while I was changing my clothes. I thought the door was locked, but it wasn’t. In a few seconds, the producer came inside, since I was changing, I requested him to wait outside, but he refused and continued screaming. Luckily, the stylist (Hitendra Kapopara) ran into the vanity and pulled him out before things became uglier.”
However, the producer had a different story to tell. Dhariwal claimed that Mandana had been creating a scene on the sets and he only had that one day left to complete the shoot of his film. He said that he had signed the actor for Rs 7 lakh but he ended up giving her Rs 17 lakh towards the end of the shoot and even then, the actor allegedly kept throwing tantrums.
“We had signed Mandana for Rs 7 lakhs, but once the shooting began and got into continuity, she started acting up. Like when we were shooting in Delhi and she had to stay back for a day, she demanded Rs 2 lakh to be paid to her. Post-lockdown, when we started planning our shoot again, and we reached out to her for dates, she said she is busy. She demanded a sum of Rs 2 lakh a day for these new dates. She wanted the money to be paid in advance, which I did,” he claimed.
Dhariwal went on to explain what according to him happened on the sets on the last day of the shoot. He said that the shift on the sets was from 9 am to 9 pm but at 8 pm, the actor got up and she went into her vanity van. Dhariwal alleged that he ran after her telling her that he won’t be able to extend the shoot for even one day because he would have to incur a loss if the shoot extends. ” I told her I would run into a loss as I will have to shoot the next day again. She wasn’t willing to stay back, and that is when I gave her an earful because she started packing up. Mandana started making videos of me screaming; I told her I am not scared. I entered the vanity van in about 10-15 seconds after she entered, and I knocked before entering. She asked me to step in. Public khadi thi bahar, and I was standing on the steps of the van. I requested an additional 15 minutes, but I lost my cool when she started acting up. Later, she came back on the shooting floor and started making my videos. There were hundreds of people on the sets who can vouch for what I am saying,” he explained.
While Mandana said that the choreographer named Prince, who’s director-choreographer Ahmed Khan’s associate, helped her, the producer claimed that the same choreographer would agree to his side of the story.
The film titled Koka Kola also features Sunny Leone.