Mirchi Lagi - Shilpa Shinde Article

DEEP TROUBLE: Shilpa Shinde (TOI Photo)

This is one script that has gone horribly wrong. The producer and actress of TV serial Hari Mirchi, Lal Mrichi on DD1, Rakesh Choudhary and Shilpa Shinde have been embroiled in a bitter battle since last year, that has now been dragged to court.

Rakesh says his lead actress not only caused him huge financial losses but also mental torture. "She has been with Hari Mirchi ... for almost two-and-a-half years now. But midway, she signed up another show Maayka . Against the rules of our contract, she allotted them days between 21st and 28th of every month. She would shoot during the day for Hari Mirchi ... and in the evening, for Maayka . This carried on for three days after which she got exhausted," says Rakesh.

"She started neglecting my serial. She didn't come to work for three days. She SMSed the director at 2 am saying, 'I have just finished shoot. Have to go for rehearsals. So I will not be able to shoot with you in the day'. All our efforts to contact her went in vain, finally we had to cancel the shoot," says Rakesh, still angry with the whole episode.

He then approached the Cine Television Artist Association (CINTA). "When they intervened, she told them she would resume shooting. But when we called her, she was wild and refused to give us her dates. CINTA finally warned her about the consequences. So the next day, she came on the sets but was very rude and misbehaved. She refused to do the serial any more. So we went to court restraining her from giving our dates to anybody else," says the producer.

The city civil court passed the order that she couldn't shoot for anybody else during the dates allocated for Hari Mirchi ... "So she came on the sets for two days but kept criticising the story and the serial and also told the director to shut up," says Rakesh about her unprofessional attitude.

Later the court passed a confirmed order that till the completion of his serial, she couldn't shoot for anybody else. "Still she went ahead and shot for Maayka . This was taken as contempt of court and the judge passed an order to attach her property. She has been given two weeks time to appeal now," says Rakesh who has now replaced Shilpa with TV actress Priya Verma. Despite repeated attempts by BT, Shilpa Shinde could not be contacted.