Courting limelight?

Courting limelight?

Accusations are flying thick and fast as several celebrities find themselves being pulled to court by Kanpur's awakened janta.

Want to become the centre of attraction, quick? The easiest way these days seems to head straight to the court room. Legal tussles between celebrities and the aam janta via PILs (Public Interest Litigation) and court notices seem to have catapulted many a nobody into the limelight.

What with cases of dragging celebrities to court or filing a suit against a big star having become quite the done thing in Kanpur. Be it a city-based music album maker giving a legal notice to Rakhi Sawant and Mumait Khan or an advocate's petition against Ektaa Kapoor, Kanpurites seem to have suddenly woken up to their rights.

Padam Kumar Gupta, a music album maker, who sued item dancer Mumait Khan, is a case in point. "I was not left with any other option," he shrugs before explaining , "I produced an album named Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon starring Mumait Khan and our contract clearly said that she would give me a fixed percentage of whatever she earned from her stage shows for a year.

But Mumait has not fulfilled the terms and conditions agreed by her. In order to get justice and my share of the profits, I filed a case under Sections 406 and 420, IPC."

But that's not all. The gentleman had gone and sued Rakhi Sawant as well because, "of a similar problem". "I served her a legal notice but after a meeting all the disputes were settled and our differences have been resolved," he clears.

But the courts are sure to be busy solving these disputes, for advocate Ratan Agarwal has admitted he sued Ektaa Kapoor for 'portraying advocates in a negative light in her serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.' "It's ridiculous how tele-serials show negative images of advocates.

The character named Meera Singhania (who plays an advocate in Kapoor's serial) is shown to be involved in an illegal relationship with her client Mihir Veerani and goes to any length to win him. I feel this will damage the image of advocates. The court now wants to see the prints of serial," informs Agarwal.

So is this due to an increasing awareness about one's rights, or are people doing all this to get into the limelight? Says advocate Vijay Singh, "I don't think anyone would file a case just for the sake of getting some publicity. With increasing exposure, people are more aware of their rights. Where there is a professional relationship, there is bound to be dispute."

But Rakhi Sawant begs to differ. "People often try to pull celebrities to court to get some publicity. As for the case filed against me by Padam Kumar Gupta, there had been some confusion between us which has now been sorted out."

Deepak Rane, Mumait Khan's manager on the other hand refused to comment on the issue only revealing that, "At present Mumait is out of India and very frankly, I have no idea about any such case having been filed against her."