What action, machcha!

We are just good friends: Saritha Jain and DattaThreatening phone calls, rumours of an affair between the director and his leading lady and a miffed costume designer who was slapped on the sets turn the film into a real life dramaActresses Saritha Jain is an angry woman. At the audio release function of Machcha at Green House Hotel in Gandhinagar, she told HiT LiST that someone was out to create trouble for her, by spreading rumours of her affair with Datta, the director of the film.u00a0What set the grapevine buzzing, we asked her. During the shooting of Machcha's climax scene, I got a shock when the costume designer accused me of stealing earrings worth Rs 50. He even went to the extent of checking my mother's purse. The director, Datta, slapped him. The designer lodged a complaint with the film chamber. Ever since Datta and I have become victims of nasty gossip, she alleged. Datta said, Saritha and I were good friends even before we made the film and we are still good friends. People who don't like me are spreading rumours about me having an affair with Saritha. This gossip has caused us a lot of pain.u00a0 Datta revealed that he was fined Rs 2 lakh by the film chamber for slapping the designer. I have paid up though I was not convinced why the designer had to check the heroine's mother's purseu00a0 for a pair of earrings that cost Rs 50!u00a0 The chamber had imposed a restriction on the film shoot as well. I couldn't shoot till the first week of December, he explained. Datta's tale of woe does not seem to end with the fine and the ban. He alleged that he was also receiving anonymous phone calls from men who demanded that he change the title of the film because their late boss, a goonda, was also called Machcha. Datta pleads that there is no link between the late goonda Maccha and the lead character in his film. I am being harassed. I will approach the police commissioner with a formal complaint soon, he added.