Actress Mandana Karimi has alleged that she was “harassed” on the sets of her forthcoming film ‘Koka Kola’, claiming that producer Mahendra Dhariwal and his son misbehaved with her. However, on the other hand, the producer has slammed her for her “unprofessional behaviour”. 

The incident happened during Diwali on the last day of ‘Koka Kola’ shoot. In an interview to Bombay Times, the actress said that she is in a state of “shock”.

“Koka Kola is a film that we have been working on for over a year now, and it’s been one of those jobs that you do despite knowing that the team is not being very professional. We all end up doing a few such jobs to just keep ourselves afloat. From the beginning, I had problems with this crew. The producer (Mahendra Dhariwal) is an old-school man who turns the set into a man-dominated, egoistic place. There are places where projects are driven by one person’s ego. That’s not new, but what happened on November 13 has shaken me up,” she said.

The ‘Bigg Boss’ fame celeb said that on the last day of her shoot, she was asked to work an hour extra, which she couldn’t due to a meeting and hence, she completed her work in time. She further alleged that when she came into her vanity van to change, the producer “forcefully came inside and shouted at her”.

“‘You can’t leave. I asked you to do an extra hour and you have to listen because I am the producer and I have paid you’,” the producer told Mandana, she said in the interview. 

“He started creating a scene on the set along with his son and calling me names. It’s unsettling how they have behaved with me as an artiste and as a woman,” she added.

Mandana added, “He started saying, ‘Humne paise diye hain, lekin tumko kaam nahi karna hai, paise bhi poore chahiye, blackmail karti hai.’ After my last take, I went to my vanity van and told my spot boy to not let anyone in while I was changing my clothes. I thought the door was locked, but it wasn’t. In a few seconds, the producer came inside, since I was changing, I requested him to wait outside, but he refused and continued screaming. Luckily, the stylist (Hitendra Kapopara) ran into the vanity and pulled him out before things became uglier.”

Meanwhile, Producer Mahendra Dhariwal, in his defense, said that Mandana was “acting up”. 

“On the last day, the shift was from 9 am to 9 pm. We had a set created and a song was being shot. At 7 pm, she said she has to leave. I requested her that we have to complete this today and I asked if she could wait for an hour more. She said okay and went back on set. At 8 pm, she got a call and she went into her vanity van. I ran after her to stop her from leaving because we still had a few shots left. I told her I would run into a loss as I will have to shoot the next day again. She wasn’t willing to stay back, and that is when I gave her an earful because she started packing up,” he told Bombay Times. 

Mahendra Dhariwal added that Mandana made videos of him screaming and categorically mentioned that he “knocked her vanity van’s door before entering and she was the one who asked her to step in. 

“Public khadi thi bahar, and I was standing on the steps of the van. I requested for an additional 15 minutes, but I lost my cool when she started acting up. Later, she came back on the shooting floor and started making my videos. There were hundreds of people on the sets who can vouch for what I am saying,” he said.

“In one-and-a-half years, for a contract of Rs 7 lakhs, she has taken Rs 17 lakhs, cash transactions included. I am okay with spending the money, but she has behaved unprofessionally with us,” Mahendra Dhariwal said.