Meera: Eye of a storm

Mumbai/Islamabad, March 2: Pakistani actor Meera, whose on-screen kiss in Mahesh Bhatt?s Nazar sparked a controversy back home, today said she has received fresh threat calls and demanded police protection once she returns.

?I need protection. I cannot go back without police protection. I want the Pakistani government and President Pervez Musharraf to assure me of protection when I return home following the renewed threat calls,? she said.

But authorities in Pakistan said the government could not take action based on what has been appearing in the media. ?Neither have we received any request from Meera for protection, nor does she appear to be in a mood to do so,? information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said. ?I think she is playing with the media for publicity.?

Earlier reports in Pakistan said the government had fined her for the on-screen episode with co-star Ashmit Patel. Pakistani officials had denied the reports.

Meera said she does not know who is behind these calls. ?But the calls refer to Nazar and always demand to know why I behaved in such a manner and performed a ?vulgar? scene,? she said. ?The callers,? she added, ?clearly tell me that I should not return to Pakistan and that I was better off staying in India and working here.?

The actor said the calls could be a fallout of professional jealousy. ?I can?t rule out the fact that some persons might be jealous of my popularity back home and my status. I am a respected artiste and someone clearly does not want me back and found this a good opportunity to create trouble and stall my return.?

About the scene in Nazar, she said: ?As an actress, I know my limits and would never exceed that and I do not think that I have enacted any vulgar scene. There has been a hue and cry over nothing.?

Meera?s Lahore-based mother said: ?Some people came to my house but we don?t want to make an issue out of it.? Her daughter, she insisted, has not done anything ?wrong?.