I’m not ignoring ‘Iniya’: Pooja Gandhi

BANGALORE - Punjabi girl Pooja Gandhi, who is one of the leading actresses in the south Indian film industry, is courting controversy for giving importance to Kannada movie “Minugu” over “Iniya” due to non-payment. But she has rubbished the reports calling them baseless.

“It’s a separate issue. It’s a fact that I have not yet been paid my dues. I had also spoken to (’Iniya’ producer) Shylendra Babu about it and he had promised to settle the issue before the release of the film,” Pooja told IANS.

Rumours started floating when Pooja attended the audio release function of “Minugu” and skipped “Iniya” music release event.

“But it has nothing to do with my absence at the audio release function of ‘Iniya’. I don’t make an issue of small things and miss events that are supposed to promote my own films. If I had carried unpleasantness about the remuneration issue, why would I have gone to the television programme to promote the film on the same day?”

Pooja says she has been participating in all the promotional programmes of “Iniya” including press meets organised during shooting.

“I don’t know who started these rumours. I could not attend the ‘Iniya’ audio release function mainly because I was busy shooting my new film ‘Gokula’ for which director Prakash had taken my dates two months ago. I had explained this to Shylendra Babu. Later, I participated in the promotional live programme of the film for channel ZEE,” said Pooja.

“About two months ago Prakash had approached me for the dates and had clearly told me that he wants my full days work on July 2, when the film was launched. There was full day shoot in Someshwara Temple and many artists were involved in the shooting.

“While audio release function of ‘Iniya’ was fixed recently and both Shylendra Babu and director Mussanje Mahesh invited me to the function. I explained them my situation and asked them to approach Prakash directly and request him to get me a few hours for the audio release function. I could not ask Prakash because he was very specific that I was needed on all the days that I was sought for the film,” said Pooja.