Sen slaps 50 lakh lawsuit on Malik

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Posted: 19 years ago

Sushmita Sen

Sushmita Sen has filed a case against music director Anu Malik's brother Abu in the Mumbai High Court. The reason she has cited is non-payment of dues amounting to a hefty Rs 50 lakh.

Sen claims the amount is outstanding as fees for her performances at the Heat shows in the US, UK and Dubai in May 2006. The shows had been organised by Safdar Hussain and co-ordinated by Abu Malik.

False promises

When we spoke to Malik, he claimed that he owed no dues to Sen. On the contrary, he said the actress had been overpaid. "The shows were not doing well economically, and she had even agreed to return the excess money that we'd paid her at that time. Now, she's demanding money from me saying that she's been underpaid! This is ridiculous," he said.

Malik said that Sushmita was supposed to do only 11 shows on the Heat tour. But later, she categorically demanded a huge amount of money for 15 shows.

She blackmailed me at the eleventh hour saying she would not leave India until she was paid $ 4,25,000 (nearly Rs 2 crore). We paid up since it was too late for us to protest
— Abu Malik

"She blackmailed me at the eleventh hour saying she would not leave India until she was paid that amount in advance. I paid each actor double of what he/she normally gets for an overseas tour and this is what I got in return," he said.

Fat amount

Safdar Hussain, the organiser of the Heat tour, said that Sushmita had been paid $ 4,25,000 (nearly Rs 2 crore) for the tour.

He said, "Sushmita is being misguided by people around her. I have not seen any artiste behaving like this. Before the tour took off, Abu called me to say that Sushmita was threatening to pull out from the tour if we didn't pay her for 15 shows in advance. We eventually paid up since it was too late for us to protest or even argue."

According to Hussain, most of the money had been paid to Sen through bank drafts. Malik further said that 90 per cent of the amount had been paid to her before she flew out.

"She said yeh account mein dal do, woh account mein dal do. Yeh account meri sister ka, yeh account meri company ka hai. We did exactly as she told us. She demanded the remaining 10 per cent in the first week of the tour itself, and again we complied," he said.

It's payback time

Hussain said that he even sent a solicitor's notice to the companies nominated by Sen to recover the excess money. "Taking into account the amount of work she put in for us, it is Sen who should pay us back $ 1,25,000."

However, Hussain said that Sushmita then sent them a letter through her solicitor acknowledging $ 1,00,000 in a company account in Dubai. "But she then stated to the company that she was unaware that the amount had been lying with them and instructed them to put that money in a trust since she had filed a case against Abu. I think she has done that because it is illegal to do such transactions in Dubai. Abu even has a copy of the letter sent by the solicitor to that company," he said.

Nakhrebaaz

Hussain added that Sushmita's behaviour during the tour was far from professional too. "She showed too much of attitude. She would go away with friends, throw lots of tantrums and would even refuse to do interviews," he complained.

Meanwhile, Abu Malik said that Sen's legal notice to him came two weeks back. "My lawyer, Ashok Sarogi, is fighting the case. I have faith in the judiciary and I'm sure they'll give me justice."

We informed Sushmita Sen's personnel about the story, but she remained unavailable for comment.