Odisha: Filmmaker Booked For Harassing & Blackmailing Actress With Intimate Pics, Videos

Bhubaneswar: After the alleged casting couch storm, Ollywood is back in news again with a popular actress accusing a filmmaker of blackmailing her with videos and photos of their intimate moments.

On the direction of the JMFC court, the Laxmisagar police station registered a case against the producer, identified as Dayanidhi Dahima, on July 26 under Sections 286, 349, 94, 350, 354, 354 A & 354 C, 383, 420, 468, 499, 503, 506 and other sections of IT ACT.

According to her lawyer Somyajit Biswal, the producer had approached her for an ad shoot and soon they became good friends. “The producer started to extract extra work from her by threatening her with the pictures and financial transactions. Taking advantage of the friendship, he also started exploiting her. She was offended and approached him for a compromise,” he said.

The filmmaker soon acted in an vindictive manner and ensured that she was dropped from different projects. “He also publicly humiliated her by creating fake accounts on social media and also indulged in her character assassination. He threatened her mother and minor brother by making numerous calls. He also harassed her by dropping by at her shooting sets, her residence and even college,” Biswal said.

The accused allegedly used those pictures and video to compel her to appoint him as a guest director for the projects she was working on and as her manager.

The lawyer said that the actress had lodged a complaint with police earlier but it was not accepted. Following which, they approached the JFMC court, which then directed police to register an FIR on the basis of her complaint. “Police have assured us that they would take all legal steps,” he added.

He further said that the pictures of their intimate moment, which he threatened to make viral, the social media posts from fake IDs and call recordings have been submitted with police as evidence. “My client has utmost faith in police and the law delivery system. If we feel that the right steps are not being taken then we will not hesitate to move court for remedial measures,” he added.

Notably, the actress had made these allegations about 2 years ago. Dayanidhi had also confessed to police about having created multiple fake accounts to defame the actress earlier and apologised to her and her mother. The actress had uploaded the letter on her Instagram account in March this year.

The filmmaker is said to be living outside Odisha and could not be contacted as his phone was found switched off.