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Bollywood rallies behind Aman Verma
19th Mar 2005 09.05 IST
By Agencies

In a strong show of solidarity, the film fraternity on Friday rallied behind Aman Verma , who was caught on camera in a sting operation by a private TV channel, dubbing the incident as a form of "character assassination" and "disgusting transgression into the privacy of an individual".

Actors and filmmakers, including Salman Khan , Arbaaz Khan , actor-turned-MP Govinda , producer Ravi Chopra , directors Raj Kanwar , David Dhawan , Suneel Darshan converged at Mehboob studio at suburban Bandra to express their support with all those who have been caught on tape.

Addressing the media, Govinda appealed to the people that they should not "fall for such tricks" and said the channel was indulging in "character assassination".

"The whole thing was a conspiracy to malign the image of the film fraternity", he said, adding it was a "well laid out trap against some of them".

"Television channels possess a lot of power and should not misuse them", the actor said.

Referring to the incident in which Shakti Kapoor was caught talking about casting couch in Bollywood, Govinda said, "Shakti was drunk but the channel was not. They could have held back the names of the ‘daughters of the industry’ from being used. They could have censored the names and stop their reputation from being maligned”.

"Only those portions were aired that were in favour of the channel", he alleged.

Reiterating that character assassination was the worst form of attack, Govinda said the entire sting operation was an "intrusion into an individual's privacy”.

Airing their opinions, director Suneel Darshan said, "this crisis was unwarranted and we must stand by our people in the industry" while actor Arbaaz Khan dubbed the entire episode as a "disgusting transgression of an actor's privacy".

Ravi Chopra said he had known Aman for several years and considered the entire operation as an invasion of private space.

"Unless he has done something that has repercussions on the country, no one has the right to invade his privacy”, he said adding that the whole exercise was a ‘ploy’.

Filmmaker Raj Kanwar said, "I would want to know one place where exploitation does not occur. All I know that it happens everywhere", while urging people to boycott such channels.

"What message do they want to convey to the society by airing such episodes? One should remember that Aman is not the whole industry", he said.

Film producer Vashu Bhagnani demanded that those involved with the operation be arrested.