WHO: Bollywood superstars Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut.

WHAT: A no-holds-barred public powwow in which he’s accused her of “stalking” him and said she “imagines things”; she’s retaliated by labelling him a “mental case” and threatened to move court against him.

WHY: Involved in a hush-hush affair for more than a year, the screen Krrish and the box office Queen had an acrimonious split. He reportedly got her ousted from Aashiqui 3, a film they were doing together. She called him a “silly ex”, he lost his cool and demanded a public apology.

THE STORY SO FAR: Hrithik and Kangana have both slapped legal notices on each other. On Thursday, Hrithik issued an official statement. On Friday, Kangana’s lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee hit back.

KANGANA’S STATEMENT:

“Mr Hrithik Roshan’s statements made to the media are nothing but efforts to gain public sympathy. He cannot wash his hands off the matter now after having criminally threatened my client and having intimidated her, without any provocation. He also cannot deny the fact that my client never named him anywhere and it was he himself who claimed to be “Silly Ex” in his notice. Besides his own acts of stating in the media that he would rather ‘date a Pope’ gave enough fodder to the media to start speculating. How can he blame my client for all his own acts of commissions and omissions.

“Further, he should have refrained from making absolutely false statements in his notice. He specifically claimed that he does not know my client socially at all. If that were the truth, then how was he attending my client’s private birthday party with his entire family and my client was attending his party besides his sister’s and his father’s birthday party as well. There is enough proof on public platform, which sufficiently proves that Mr Hrithik Roshan is lying.

“Pursuant to my counter-notice there are now new claims that my client was not co-operating with the police to help with investigation of Mr Hrithik’s complaint. These claims are as false as his other claims. The fact is that my client was never dealing with any imposter and given the background of the matter, it is very lame on Mr Hrithik’s part to even suggest that. Besides my client was never ever asked for any co-operation in the said matter by any person for obvious reasons. The fact that Mr Hrithik waited for seven months to lodge a complaint says it all. Now pursuant to receipt of my notice the complaint is once again being looked into by Mr Hrithik Roshan, only as a face-saving strategy.

“It is also worthy to note that Mr Hrithik Roshan specifically claims to have received 50 unsolicited emails per day from my client for about 601 days (as calculated from 24th May 2014 upto 16th February 2016). Accordingly he should have received more than 30,000 emails from my client as against his own alleged claim of receiving only 1,439 emails from my client during the said period. This shows that there is non-application of mind even while making allegations. At least make efforts to do the calculations. Besides if Mr Hrithik Roshan was really receiving unsolicited emails from my client then why did he not prudently block my client and went on receiving my client’s emails for such a long time. The answer is obvious.

“His own actions speak a lot and I need not say more on behalf of my client Ms Kangana Ranaut. Most importantly I would like to point out that at least Mr Hrithik Roshan should have bothered to ensure that he has a good reason to send a legal notice to my client. However as expected the notice is absolutely baseless, unsubstantiated, unwarranted and uncalled for. There is not even a case of defamation made out against my client and he is issuing a notice for defamation without application of mind. He needs to immediately realise that my client Ms Kangana Ranaut does not need Mr Hrithik Roshan’s name to garner publicity or attention, as she is a renowned public figure herself.
“I sincerely hope that the matter ends here and better sense prevails.”

In case you missed it, here are the highlights (lowlights, if you please) of Hrithik’s statement on Thursday.

HRITHIK’S STATEMENT:

Out of respect for everyone involved, I followed the legal path to resolve the matter... so as to keep it private. It was a breach of ethics to reveal the contents of a private legal notice. Dignified silence is dignified up to a point, but there comes a time when the silence needs to be broken to protect one’s name, family and image.

The crux of the matter is that the mail id hroshan@email.com does NOT belong to me. I had filed a complaint in this regard with Mumbai cyber crime cell on 12th December 2014 when I learnt of this impersonator communicating with the said person.  I have absolutely NO CONNECTION with this ID.

And finally, I believe that mental health is a grave and crucial issue, which merits serious discussion. I would never address it flippantly nor use it as a personal attack. I was requested to keep silent and I did so for 2 years.
This will be my final statement regarding this matter.”

Whose side are you on: Hrithik or Kangana?
Tell t2@abp.in