War of words erupts over garbage dumped in Goa beach

A war of words has spewed over indiscriminate dumping of garbage in a Goa beach village, by an onsite production crew hired by filmmaker Karan Johar's Dharma Productions.

A line producer hired by filmmaker Karan Johar's Dharma Productions for co-ordinating a film shoot in Goa has now accused actor Kangana Ranaut of defaming Goa, after the actor on Tuesday, shared a photo of non-segregated garbage allegedly dumped by a film production crew following a shoot in Nerul village in North Goa.

Ranaut in her tweet had also urged Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar to probe the environmental damage caused by the incident.

"Movie industry is not a virus just for the moral fibre n culture of this nation but it has become very destructive and harmful for the environment also, @PrakashJavdekar ji @moefcc see this disgusting, filthy, irresponsible behaviour by so-called big production houses, pls help Folded hands," Ranaut said in her tweet.

Dilip Borkar, a Goa-based line producer hired by Dharma Productions, has however said that the accusations of indiscriminate garbage disposal were baseless.

"No one knows the ground reality. Kangana Ranaut does not know anything about what is happening here. This is wrong. She is spoiling Goa's name," Borkar said at a press conference held in Panaji on Wednesday.

"...there are efforts to defame us. We do not know why, maybe because Dharma Productions is involved or Karan Johar's name is involved," Borkar said.

The line producer said that the incident was related to a Dharma Productions shoot, for a film starring Deepika Padukone.

"The film shoot was at a villa in Nerul village. The garbage was collected every day and we had engaged a contractor appointed by the local village panchayat to dispose of the garbage. It was only on Sunday (last week) that he failed to turn up, so the garbage collection was delayed by a day," Borkar said.

The line producer has already been issued a show-cause notice by the Entertainment Society of Goa, a Goa government body which facilitates and regulates film-shoots permissions.