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Exclusive | Mandhira Kapur reacts to defamation case by Priya Kapur: I didn't lie; she can't walk away with everything

Mandhir Kapur Smith, sister of late industrialist Sanjay Kapur, reacts to the criminal defamation case filed against her by sister-in-law Priya Kapur.

Published on: Jan 19, 2026, 09:20:07 IST
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Late businessman Sanjay Kapur’s widow Priya Kapur, on Saturday, filed a criminal defamation case against his sister, Mandhira Kapur Smith. According to a Bar and Bench report, Priya complained that Mandhira repeatedly uploaded and circulated videos and posts on YouTube and social media platforms like Instagram and X, which identify Priya by name and made “false allegations designed to cause hatred, ridicule and social ostracism; thereby demolishing the reputation of the complainant..”

Mandhira Kapur (L), Priya Kapur with late husband Sanjay Kapur (R)
Mandhira Kapur (L), Priya Kapur with late husband Sanjay Kapur (R)

Further, the complaint states that in a podcast, Mandhira insinuated that Priya’s marriage with Sunjay was troubled and undeserving of legitimacy.

MANDHIRA REACTS

When HT City reaches out to Mandhira, she says she never said anything false, “All of what I said is mentioned in court, how am I defaming? Anything I have lied about, let me know, because I can guarantee I’ve lied about nothing.”

Also read: Karisma Kapoor calls Priya Kapur's bid in Supreme Court to access her divorce papers ‘frivolous’

She adds that she learned about the defamation suit against her through Instagram, and she is yet to receive any notice, “The funny thing is the media got it before me! These are all tactics to distract me from what is going on.”

Mandhira states that her mother, Rani is unhappy with the turn of events, “I sit with my mother everyday, and she says ‘get everything back, your father (Surinder Kapoor) and I built this’ It’s horrible, what our family is going through. I am not going to go out there and lie to anybody about what the reality is. There’s nothing I can do if Priya is upset. I don’t blame her for being upset, but it is the truth. My mother, who built everything, today doesn’t have anything on her name. Imagine what she is going through.”

ON BEING ACCUSED OF ‘VESTED INTERESTS’

Even as she continues to speak up, we point out to Mandhira that there is a section who wonders why did she not reveal all this before Sanjay’s death in 2025, and that maybe she has vested interests. “Let them say what they want to,” Mandhira replies, “The fact is, all this belongs to my mother, my sister, to me, our children, my brother’s children. No one was trying to cut Priya out, she is the one who has done all this. No one was going to cut out of her bit of the family inheritance, but you don’t take it all and walk away. My father and mother never planned to give it to one child. We are going to fight for what is my mother’s first while she is alive. Everything was meant to be on her name, and that’s what my dad wanted.”

‘IN TOUCH WITH KARISMA AND THE KIDS’

Mandhira says she is very much in touch with Karisma, Sanjay’s ex wife and their children Samaaira and Kiaan, “The kids have lost their best friend. My mother lost her son. It’s very tough. Everyone is going on about the money, but it’s also about my father’s legacy. The whole story that she (Priya) is doing about my father, that he ran down the company to the ground and my brother brought it up... no, the company was doing really well. Should I put a defamation against her now? You want to play this game? We can keep playing it. I have got nothing to lose.”

We reached out to Priya for a comment, but didn’t get a reply till the time of this story going live.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rishabh Suri

Rishabh Suri is an Assistant Editor, film critic, and professional overthinker of plot points. He writes for HT City, keeping pace with an industry where news cycles expire long before the popcorn gets cold. He completed his graduation in English Honours from Kirori Mal College, followed by a Master’s degree in English Literature-effectively training his brain to over-analyse classic texts before applying those exact same skills to 3-hour Bollywood blockbusters. He got into the profession when he had barely graduated from college and has been at HT ever since. At HT, Rishabh reviews films with a simple rule: skip the dense academic jargon and get straight to the point. Beyond reviews, as Assistant Editor, he helps navigate the broader circus of showbiz, tracking everything from OTT shifts to sudden box office panics. In a beat driven by loud PR machinery and carefully scripted answers, Rishabh prefers cutting through the noise to focus on how stories get made and why trends shift. When he isn’t writing against a deadline, he is usually sitting in a dark theater, compulsively memorising dialogues. For Rishabh, analysing movies isn't just a day job- it’s a habit he couldn't turn off even if he tried.

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