Casting couch: Pawan Kalyan booked for tampering footage

Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan was booked under several sections of IPC for allegedly tampering a video of budding actress Sri Reddy in an effort to instigate fans against some media houses.

Furious fans attacked and damaged the broadcasting van of a Telugu news channel following his impromptu dharna at the film chamber here seeking justice.

Based on the complaint lodged by Telangana Union of Working Journalists, the Banjara Hills police registered a case under IPC sections 469, 504 and 506 against Pawan and his associates, whose names were not mentioned in the first information report (FIR) on Thursday.

Video tampered?

TV9, one of the channels targeted by Pawan, produced evidence that Pawan had tampered with the video it had telecast. It claimed that it had muted the objectionable comment made by Sri Reddy and also blurred her offensive gesture. But, Pawan, the channel alleged, had posted on Twitter the unedited video attributing it to TV9. Another channel, ABN Andhra Jyothy, also made similar allegations against Pawan and demanded an open apology from him, besides deletion of the Twitter posts.

A few weeks ago, Sri Reddy, whose semi-nude protest brought to the fore the exploitation of women in Tollywood, dragged Pawan into the debate by demanding his reaction on casting couch. Dissatisfied with his response, she made an objectionable comment on Pawan's mother and an indecent gesture. Soon filmmaker Ramgopal Verma claimed that he advised Sri Reddy to abuse Pawan Kalyan.

An angry Pawan Kalyan linked the whole episode to three media houses and ruling TDP, alleging that they conspired against him to defame him politically. Even as the channels and their shareholders sought legal recourse, Pawan has been continuing his tirade through Twitter posts.

Amicable solution

The Telugu film industry, in an effort to find an amicable solution, met in Annapurna Studio and Mega Star Chiranjeevi also participated to take corrective measures. However, they have not spelt out any initiatives to curb exploitation of upcoming women artists and the alleged character assassination by news channels.