The Bombay High Court on Wednesday restrained the actor Salil Ankola from acting in a reality show on a petition filed by Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms stating that Ankola had entered into a contract with them.
Senior counsel Ravi Kadam representing Balaji Telefilms argued that Ankola had signed a contract in June this year whereby he had agreed to work exclusively for Balaji for a year. Ankola was to act in a serial Kasturi which was being produced by Balaji for Star Plus.
The agreement required him to work solely for Balaji, and not to act in any other serial or programme for any other channel produced by any other production house, "which makes programmes that can compete with the programmes produced by Balaji."
The agreement was to come into force from the day the first episode of the serial was telecast. The serial went on air on September 29 under the name Karam Apna Apna.
According to Balaji, Ankola shot for the serial till October, after which he 'disappeared'. Balaji sent two notices to him, none of which were replied by the actor. In the meanwhile Sony announced that its reality show Big Boss will feature Ankola too, alongwith other celebrities.
{{/usCountry}}According to Balaji, Ankola shot for the serial till October, after which he 'disappeared'. Balaji sent two notices to him, none of which were replied by the actor. In the meanwhile Sony announced that its reality show Big Boss will feature Ankola too, alongwith other celebrities.
{{/usCountry}}Following which Balaji approached the HC. Justice DK Deshmukh granted Balaji' prayer seeking restrain on Ankola from endorsing, promoting, acting and doing voice-over for any other channel or production house which is directly or indirectly competing with Balaji.
The dispute as to the breach of the agreement is now with the arbitration tribunal. But, till the tribunal sorts the matter out, Ankola can not act in Big Boss or in other non-Balaji programme, said Kadam.
Spokesperson for Sony told HT that it has not received any orders from the court. "We are waiting for a copy of the order and we will comply the orders. We will go by the law," said the spokesperson.