Actor Nupur Mehta to sue British paper over photograph

Actor Nupur Mehta has threatened to sue British newspaper The Sunday Times for using a photograph she claims is hers in a story about match-fixing.

Actor Nupur Mehta has threatened to sue British newspaper The Sunday Times for using a photograph she claims is hers in a story about match-fixing.

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Mehta said she had a go-ahead from her lawyer to send a legal notice. “I have consulted my lawyer and now am in a position to send the notice,” she told HT.

The British newspaper had claimed that Indian bookies, with the help of a Bollywood actor, are luring cricketers into throwing games. The report quoted a bookie who claimed that actors were being used to entice players into fix matches. The paper carried a picture of an actor with her face blurred. The paper, however, did not name the person in the photograph.

After the report was published, Mehta claimed the picture was hers, and that it had been used without her consent. She denied any link with the scandal and also denied having any interaction with any bookie.

Former IPS officer and lawyer YP Singh said the actor could sue the British newspaper in an Indian court as she was defamed here. “But executing the summons will be cumbersome, as it has to be done through a foreign court,” Singh said.

Nupur Mehta is known in the Hindi film industry through the supporting role she played in the 2005 Sunny Deol-starrer Jo Bole So Nihal. The controversy, though, also seems to have revived her career. She claims to have received several work offers after the report was published.

“I have got three to four film offers and two reality show offers,” Mehta said, while refusing to divulge details.