Sam Fernandes accused Aditya Pancholi of allegedly abusing threatening and assaulting him at a hotel
Aditya Pancholi is a Bollywood actor who is no stranger to controversy. And this time, the actor was in the news for yet another scandal, this time when film producer Sam Fernandes accused him of insulting, threatening, and beating him at a hotel. According to reports in the media, Sam filed a case against Aditya at a Mumbai police station. While the news has caused widespread consternation, it has been claimed that Aditya Pancholi has filed a cross complaint against Sam Fernandes in the incident.
The Mumbai Police confirmed the information. Talking about it to ANI, the police stated, “Film producer Sam Fernandes has lodged a complaint at Mumbai’s Juhu police station against actor Aditya Pancholi for allegedly abusing, threatening & assaulting him at a hotel. Pancholi has also lodged a cross-complaint”.
For the uninitiated, Sam and Aditya are said to be at odds after the latter pressured him to keep his son Sooraj Pancholi as the lead actor in his upcoming film about an Indian heavyweight boxer.
Talking about it, Sam told Times of India, “I had announced the film with Sooraj in the lead role in 2019. He shot for around 12 days for the project. However, things went awry after the first lockdown, as the investors did not want to back a film with Sooraj in the lead. I spoke to Sooraj about it, who himself asked us to go ahead with another actor. However, his father, Aditya Pancholi, insisted that we retain Sooraj and that he would get an investor, but that didn’t happen”.
While Sam stated that Aditya gave some for the project, he also stated that they were unable to match the film’s budget, which was estimated to be around Rs 25 crore. Later, Sam said that things between them became tense, and Aditya allegedly abused, threatened, and beat him. He then filed a police report at Mumbai’s Juhu station. Aditya, on the other hand, levelled identical charges against Sam, alleging that the producers had misbehaved with him and demanded more money.
“In February 2020, Sam came to me, shared a sob story and asked for money. He told me, ‘Khatam ho jaaunga, ghar girvi rakh diya hai, vendors ka paisa dena hai’. Being an emotional person, I gave him money up to Rs 90 lakh 50 thousand from my wife’s and children’s accounts. On January 27, he visited me at a hotel and, after a while, started misbehaving with me and talking rubbish about Sooraj and my family. He asked me for more money, and I refused. I asked him to return the money he had earlier borrowed, but he flatly refused. Next, I got to know that he filed an NC against me at the Juhu Police Station. I, too, filed an NC against him the following day. I have also filed an application for an FIR against him at the Versova police station”, Aditya was quoted saying to TOI.
