Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut on Tuesday shared some photos and a video alleging that a production crew, hired by Karan Johar's Dharma production for a shoot in Goa, has indiscriminately dumped PPEs and other unsegregated garbage by the roadside.
"Movie industry is not a virus just for the moral fibre n culture of this nation but it has become very destructive and harmful for the environment also, @PrakashJavdekar ji @moefccAsee this disgusting, filthy, irresponsible behaviour by so-called big production houses, pls help Folded hands," Ranaut said in her tweet, which created a storm on social media.
Reacting to her statement, Goa-based line producer Dilip Borkar, who had been hired by Dharma, said that the national award-winning actress did not know ground realities.
"No one knows the ground reality. Kangana Ranaut does not know anything about what is happening here. This is wrong. She is spoiling Goa's name," Borkar told a press conference in Panaji on Wednesday. "...there are efforts to defame us. We do not know why, maybe because Dharma Production is involved or Karan Johar's name is involved," he added.
The controversy erupted after photos of garbage bags indiscriminately dumped by the film production crew went viral on social media, following which the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), a government agency which oversees film-shoot related regulation, issued a show-cause notice to Borkar. The notice had said that norms of garbage disposal were not followed while disposing of non-biodegradable waste, which included PPE gear used in the film shoot.
Borkar said that the shooting for the Dharma Production film starring Deepika Padukone, was being carried out in a villa in the beach village of Nerul in North Goa and the daily collection of garbage was dumped at a site designated by the local village Panchayat authority.
"The garbage was disposed of by a local contractor appointed by the village Panchayat every day. Only on Sunday, he failed to do so, after which the photos went viral," Borkar said in his defence.