Never Threatened Rabindranath Panda, Clarifies Actor Buddhaditya Mohanty; Check His Video Message

Bhubaneswar: A day after being accused of threatening a film producer, actor Buddhaditya Mohanty on Sunday said that his chat messages have been misconstrued.

In a video message, the actor clarified that he had never threatened to spoil the life or career of Rabindranath Panda. “I have sent no threatening message on his personal WhatsApp number and had instead addressed him as ‘Dada! namaskar’. It was in response to his emoticon and ‘Dil Toh Pagal Hai’ remarks to postings on Pritam Sahu and I deleted those after the discussion spilled over to Ollywood Page III group of Odia actors,” Buddhaditya said.

The actor had earlier filed a police complaint against Pritam over his alleged disparaging social media posts, tarnishing his image.

“When I personally messaged him as to why was he reacting to the posts with emoticons for the last 3 days and he responded in the Ollywood Page III Whatsapp group questioning my reaction to Pritam’s ‘bad actor’ remarks and said that the police complaint was intended at getting publicity to be able to campaign for political parties in the upcoming elections,” Buddhaditya said, adding that he was triggered by these comments.

The actor responded about 10 minutes later by writing, “Do you want to go to the police station? Do you want to be highlighted by media. Welcome to the club. Wait for tomorrow.”

Buddhaditya asked if these message can be construed as a threat. “I challenge him to show me the messages where I threatened to spoil his career or tried to throw my weight around,” he said.

He added that he might have met Rabindranath at social events but did not know him personally.

On Saturday, Rabindranath had lodged a complaint with Nayapalli police against the actor, alleging that the latter tried to defame him on various social media platforms. He also accused Buddhaditya of threatening him with dire consequences. He further alleged that the actor sent him abusive messages on his WhatsApp number but immediately deleted those.

Rabindranath is said to have produced around nine films in his more than a decade stint in the Odia film industry.