Tollywood resurrects fading stars

Anara Gupta and Monica Bedi bag roles in Telugu films

HYDERABAD: Tollywood has come to the rescue of two defamed Bollywood starlets, Anara Gupta and Monica Bedi, who have been cast in films by local producers.

Anara, who won the ‘Miss Jammu’ beauty pageant in 2001, plays the role of a girl  who is cheated in Nyayam Kavali, produced by Sana Vijay Prakash and directed by Deepak Kumar. “The film focuses on the fight by Anara in real life to cleanse the black marks on her career,” says producer, Vijay Prakash.

Similarly, Monica Bedi, better known as Abu Salem’s girlfriend, will play the heroine in an untitled Telugu film by the same producers. “Our script for the film focuses on her travails in the court halls and jails at Bhopal and Hyderabad,” says Prakash. Monica has agreed to do the movie in principle, but the final agreement is yet to be drawn up, he said.
Anara, 21, has been at the centre of a pornography and police scandal in Jammu and Kashmir since 2001.

A CD with a pornographic movie allegedly featuring her came to light in October 2004 and was aired on several TV stations.

Anara was arrested along with her mother and three brothers in Jammu and held in custody for ten days. She later accused well-known cable operator Narinder Kohli of defaming her. This led to his arrest alongwith many local politicians.

Investigations later showed that her detention was illegal. Three police officers were later dismissed. The CD sent to a forensic laboratory in Hyderabad concluded that the woman in the video was not Anara, though a similar lab at Chandigarh said the opposite.

Anara appeared before the National Commission for Women and the National Human Rights Commission. A fresh investigation was launched later.