Mumbai, Oct 24: Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja, who is now out on bail after being accused of raping his house maid, has taken legal action against a mobile phone advertisement which takes a humourous dig at the scandal.
“As the advertisement amounts to wilful character assassination, Shiney has sent a legal notice to the mobile company,” the actor's publicist Dale Bhagwagar said.
The ad by Micromax Mobile, tagged as the ‘Bai commercial', was rolled out last week ahead of the Diwali festive season.
The commercial shows a young girl exclaiming, ‘Shiney bought me a new ‘Bling' (mobile phone)”. Hearing this, another girl says, ‘He bought me one too', and flaunts the handset. Immediately, another phone rings and a maid is shown possessing the same handset. To the utter surprise of the other two girls, the maid says - ‘What? Sahab bought me one'.
“As we know, Shiney had challenged his conviction and the Bombay High Court has admitted his appeal, which is currently pending hearing. For the mobile company to air such a commercial influencing public opinion when Shiney's appeal is pending hearing, is equivalent to contempt of court,” Shiney's publicist alleged.
In March this year, the actor was sentenced to seven years prison by a sessions court in Mumbai for raping his maid in 2009. Later on, he was released on bail by the high court.
The 38-year-old actor, best known for his films like ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi', ‘Life In A Metro', ‘Woh Lamhe', ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa' and ‘Gangster', is expected to be back in action with the release of his upcoming movies ‘Ek Accident', ‘Ghost', ‘Chaloo Movie' and ‘Har Pall'.
