Zarina Wahab Defends Hrithik Roshan; Sends Legal Notice To Kangana

This is not a good time to be Kangana Ranaut. Not only has the actor’s ambitious project, Simran, sunk without a trace,her confessions of previous love affairs have also made her lose face. While other victims of Ranaut’s tongue-lashing, namely actors Hrithik Roshan and Adhyayan Suman, have chosen to stay mum, actor Aditya Pancholi and his wife, actor Zarina Wahab, have sent criminal and civil defamation notices to Ranaut.

During her promotional campaign for Simran recently, Ranaut shared unsavoury details of her “traumatic” affair with Pancholi when she was new in Bollywood. She even called him her “mentor turned tormentor”, referring to how he physically abused her. Tension between the concerned parties has been building up ever since, and Wahab is all for teaching Ranaut a lesson.

“She really crossed all limits. Kya zaroorat thi yeh sab baatein karne ki film promotion ke liye (what was the need to talk about her past affairs to promote her film?). She would have let the past bury itself in the mud instead of flinging mud on people who once mattered to her.She should have let her work speak for her instead of digging up past affairs, thereby compromising not just herself but also several other individuals and families,” says Wahab.

Pancholi’s wife also extends her support to Hrithik and his father, filmmaker Rakesh Roshan. “The Roshans are such dignified, cultured people. They don’t deserve to be dragged through the mud in this way.I’ve known Hrithik’s father for years.We’ve worked together in films. He is a gentleman and a kind co-star. And so is Hrithik. Whenever he sees me entering the room, he stands up out of respect.”

But what has irked Wahab the most is that Ranaut dragged her children into the controversy. “She really crossed [the limit] when she brought my daughter Sana into the picture. Her lie that she is younger than my daughter has been exposed, and both Nirmal (Aditya Pancholi’s real name) and I felt that she needs to apologise for dragging my daughter’s name into her publicity campaign,” says the actor, adding, “You know I can’t understand this attitude of ingratitude. I’m the kind of person who’d be indebted to someone for a glass of water. She seems to have forgotten how much my husband and I did for her when she was new in Mumbai. Nirmal really went out of his way to introduce her to producers. I don’t think he did even a fraction of this for our own daughter’s career.”

Why did Wahab help Ranaut at that time, knowing about the affair with her husband? She clarifies, “Let me make it very clear I only helped Kangana until I got to know about the affair. I am kind but I am not stupid.When she first came to Mumbai, I even allowed her to stay in a flat owned by us.”

So, what do she and her husband want from Ranaut? “Only a public apology for all the hurt and slander she has caused. Did you hear what she had to say [in an interview] to Barkha Dutt? Such lies! And for what purpose? She is such a capable artist and has become so successful.What is the point in hurting those people who were important to her at some point in life? Just because they don’t matter to her any longer?” says Wahab.