Kyunki's Lakshya drags Balaji, Ekta to court

LEGAL BATTLE: Actor Pulkit Samrat has sued Balaji Telefilms Limited of non-payment of dues.

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Mumbai: The Queen of Indian soap operas, Ekta Kapoor, has been dragged to the court by an actor from her own camp.

Actor Pulkit Samrat, who played Lakshya in Balaji's longest running soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court against Balaji Telefilms Limited for non-payment of dues and also for a binding contract that restricted him from working with any other production house for three years.

"I wanted to break the myth of the so-called Balaji contract that we wouldn't get work anywhere else. If you're talented, you will get work anywhere," Pulkit Samrat.

In an industry where production houses dictate the rules and where actors are often exploited for want of rights or regulations, this could be a welcome move. In fact a Mumbai tabloid jumped the gun to report that the Bombay High Court had ruled in favour of the actor and warned Balaji for its arm-twisting tactics.

However according to latest reports, Balaji Telefilms too is all set to take the actor to court for his defamatory statements against the company and Ekta Kapoor and is also set to sue the newspaper, Mumbai Mirror, for the misleading report which suggested that Pulkit Samrat has won the court case.

"It's an obvious attempt at getting publicity on part of the actor. The judge never said those words. The arbitration petition was referred to an arbitrator and is still pending a complete resolution," Balaji's legal department head Sandeep Sidhu told CNN-IBN.

Ekta Kapoor, however, has a plenty of supporters among those who have previously worked with her. "I've worked with Ekta before, she is not like that. It's a case of angoor khatte...," filmmaker Anurag Basu said.

However now that a legal battle is being fought by an actor against one of television industry's biggest players, the balance of power in the industry may never be the same again.