Hrithik-Kangana row escalates; police invoked

Kangana Ranaut and Hrithik Roshan attend a news conference for Kites in Mumbai. Reuters

The legal battle between Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut seems to show no signs of ending, with the police now involved in what is rumoured to be a love story gone sour.

The controversy began in March, when 42-year-old Roshan, one of India’s biggest stars, sent a legal notice to 28-year-old Ranaut for defaming him during an interview, and demanded a public apology from her. In retaliation, Ranaut issued a counter claim, which accused Roshan of attempting to hide their relationship. Roshan divorced his wife of 17 years, Sussanne Khan, in 2014. They share custody of their two sons, Hrehaan and Hridaan.

According to Roshan, Ranaut had sent him 1,439 emails since 2014. In his notice, Roshan maintains that Ranaut had been “communicating with an impostor”, and that, as a result, Ranaut has been sending him almost 50 emails a day. The notice also claimed that Roshan’s father had also been “harassed by the actress”, and that Ranaut was suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, a statement for which Roshan received a lot of flak on social media.

In her defence, Ranaut said that the email ID in question had been set up by Roshan to enable them to communicate secretly. She also accused Roshan of hacking into her account and deleting incriminating evidence.

Both stars were asked to hand over their personal laptops for inspection, but Ranaut refused. Her lawyer later went on record to say that the actress would be willing to withdraw her notice if Roshan withdrew his.

Last week, news broke that Ranaut’s lawyer had sent a letter to Mumbai’s commissioner of police, claiming that Roshan was circulating sensitive photographs of Ranaut without her consent. The letter also said that while Ranaut was still contemplating filing an official complaint, the police should stop Roshan from such tactics.