Veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar told a Mumbai court on 12 June that certain comments made by actor Kangana Ranaut during an interview given to a news channel following Sushant Singh Rajput's death in June 2022 were "nothing but a lie".
The 76-year-old poet reportedly made the remarks when he appeared before the Andheri metropolitan magistrate court for cross-examination by Ranaut's defence lawyer in a defamation suit that she filed against him.
According to a report by PTI, Akhtar had filed a complaint against Kangana in November 2020 in the magistrate's court, alleging that the defamatory remarks the Tanu Weds Manu actor made during her television interview had damaged his reputation.
During the 2020 interview, Ranaut claimed that Akhtar had asked her to apologise to her former co-star Hrithik Roshan, who filed a lawsuit against her in 2016 following their public spat over a statement on their rumoured relationship.
"Once Javed Akhtar called me to his house and told me Rakesh Roshan (father of Hrithik Roshan) and his family are very big people. If you don't apologise to them, you will have nowhere to go. They will put you in jail, and eventually, the only path would be that of destruction... you will commit suicide. These were his words. He shouted and yelled at me. I was shaking in his house," Ranaut had told the news channel in 2020.
As per PTI, Rizwan Siddiquee, Ranaut's defence lawyer, asked Akhtar during the cross-examination on Monday, "Is it true that you have not disclosed the true fact of the meeting with her because whatever Kangana said in the interview is true."
Akhtar said, "Whatever Kangana said in the interview is a lie and nothing but a lie."
In response to a question about his meeting with Ranaut at his house in 2016, Akhtar further said, "You expect obedience from Kangana, it is not called obedience, but possibility for something...some kind of a solution. Physical reality is they came to my house, but obedience is a notion only in mind."
"I had told her about the agenda of the meeting on call. Didn't call her to discuss the weather, political situation or America election in 2016," PTI quoted Akhtar.
According to PTI, Akhtar said that though he did not know Kangana personally, he had always admired her work as an actor. However, during their meeting he switched the topic after he realized she was not going to listen to him. The veteran added that he knows the Roshan family personally, and the dispute between Ranaut and Hrithik "was of no consequence or bearing on me personally".
Hrithik and Ranaut had worked together in films like Krrish 3 and Kites.
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