Sherlyn fires publicist Dale Bhagwagar

Sherlyn had signed on Dale when her C-grade movies such as Time Pass, Jawani Diwani and Naughty Boy had not managed to get the actress the attention that she wanted. Dale says he took her from obscurity to being in the news all the time.

"We worked on setting up different looks for her. At times, she would be photographed dressed as Santa Claus and playing with kids. At other times, she would appear on the cover of a magazine imparting sex gyan. Sometimes she would pose for newspapers wearing a tricolour salwar-kurta and sometimes she would be arrested by the Alibaug police for doing a bikini photo shoot without police permission on the beach. All of these things ensured Sherlyn was in the news all the time. That was my job as her publicist… that's what I was being paid for!" says Bhagwagar.

So what went wrong then?

Chopra claims that Dale suffers from a "God complex." She says that he kept curbing her freedom of speech and pretty much ruled her life. "He likes to believe that he is God and enjoys this feeling of being a 'spokesperson' for everyone. He forever told me what to do and what I couldn't do. I felt so suffocated!"

Dale, however, has another take on this. "She fired me as she thought of me as a control freak. But I'm a publicist of some of the biggest clients… it is my job to guide them. If I was so bad would people like Shilpa, Shiney and Esha work with me? I mean just look at Shilpa and how well she is doing. If I was so controlling why would someone like her want to stay with me?! If you call guiding your clients who pay you so much money as being controlling… I can't help that," he says.

Chopra feels that Bhagwagar often gave her wrong advice. "You know it's a very bad feeling when your friends turn into your foes. When I was with Dale I was constantly a victim of bad advice," she says. "He told me to sue a major paper like Mid-Day and for eight months I was blacklisted by the paper. Now you tell me what does that mean for an actor?"

Sherlyn was also recently in the news as she has decided to never work with her Red Swastik director, Vinod Pande, as she felt that he has cheated her. "From what was told to me during narration to how that movie turned out…I'm very disappointed and I feel cheated and used," says the actress. "In fact I don't think I will ever show that film as a part of my show reel!"

Chopra says having worked with people like Dale Bhagwagar and Vinod Pande have only made her wiser and stronger. "I know there is a certain image of me in the industry of being bold. But what is wrong in saying and doing what's on your mind? I thought that's the way this world works, doesn't it?"