'I have been made a scapegoat'

Courting COntroversy

The year has begun with a controversy in Sandalwood. Duniya Vijay wants to end his 14-year-long marriage to Nagarathna and has filed for divorce. On Thursday evening, the electronic media had a field day with the actor and wife washing their dirty linen in public.

While Vijay claimed that his wife never looked after his mother, Nagarathna claimed that the actor had deserted her for another woman, who she claimed was actress Shubha Punja.

The actress was shooting for her upcoming movie Meenakshi, when she was suddenly bombarded with calls. Talking to Metrolife, Shubha says that she has no clue why Nagarathna is pulling her into the mess. “I have absolutely nothing to do with Vijay, his wife or their marriage. I have been made a scapegoat,” she states.

Her association with Duniya Vijay, she says, has been only in movies, in which she had starred opposite him. “We have done many films together and in the course of time, we did become very good friends but there is nothing more than that.

But when there were rumours linking us up, I cut all ties with him,” she says while adding, “In fact, it has been more than two years since I have even spoken to him. So how can I be the reason for their marriage failing?”

Nagarathna even produced a few pictures of Vijay and Shubha getting married, which Shubha says she has nothing to do with. “Those pictures were falsely published in a Kannada tabloid three years ago.

And I have clarified about it back then itself. I don’t know why this issue is coming up again and again. I am single and this controversy will affect my life as well,” she says.

In fact, when that controversy did come up three years ago, Shubha says it had affected her career. “Unfortunately, it took me a long time to really get over that trauma.

But this time, I am just not going to let this affect me in any way. I have so much more to look forward to. I have great films lined up as well. I am just going to turn a deaf ear to all of this and laugh it off,” she signs off.