Mumbai, October 24: Mandira Bedi is in a bad shape, physically, mentally and right now, even emotionally. A bad stunt during the Khatron Ke Khiladi press conference in Mumbai that resulted in a broken ankle, surgery, a metal plate with seven screws to hold the bone in place, has left her upset and tearful. She sent Colors, the television channel hosting the show, a legal notice for ignoring her, now that the show is off the air and demanded a response within seven days. The channel asked for time. “Six weeks later, do they still need more time,” asked a fuming Mandira .
At the press conference, at the behest of show host Akshay Kumar, the 13 lady contestants jumped from a 15-foot height, barefoot, onto two thin coir mattresses. “Barefoot, because we weren’t informed before hand that we were doing a stunt and didn’t have training shoes,” said Mandira, who hurt her foot badly after doing the stunt. A doctor on the set advised her to ice the badly swollen foot. Mandira called her husband, who suggested an X-ray. Nobody from Colors accompanied her to the hospital, she said. “I left alone in my car as there wasn’t an ambulance there. My X-ray confirmed a fracture. I informed the Colors team of it and my inability to return. Then I went to hospital to put my foot in a cast. The next day, a newspaper reported that ‘Mandira twisted her ankle’. Which is the only official statement from Colors,” added Mandira. Injuries and all, in cast and on crutches, Mandira still made the KKK finale shoot where Akshay acknowledged her injury as a “zara si moch”.
Then followed a painful, three-hour surgery and many attempts by Mandira in vain to talk to the CEO of the channel. “He deigned to call me back,” she alleged. “Of course, it was only because the show was still on air! Subsequently, he apologised for a Colors employee’s feeble attempt at clearing my hospital bills, saying it would be ‘chicken-feed in comparison to all the pain and trauma I have gone through’. He also assured me that he would ‘make it up to me’. That was the last time I heard from him or anyone else from there.” But Mandira doesn’t want anyone to “make it up to her” she wants them to take responsibility. “Accept, on a public forum, that a mistake happened, that there was medical negligence and violation of safety norms. This acknowledgement makes for a larger issue. This callous and inhuman behaviour has to be made an example of,” she insisted. “What if Akshay had hurt himself doing a stunt on the show because of lack of safety or medical negligence? Would the channel wash their hands off him?”
A spokesperson from Colors told BT: “We’re surprised on receiving this notice from Mandira and our lawyers are in the process of responding to the notice. The fact is that she voluntarily opted to do the jump and all due care was taken during all the rehearsals of the show, to ensure safety of all participants. For unforeseen incidents, there was an ambulance and a doctor on stand-by, always. It was unfortunate that she hurt herself during one of the rehearsal drills. While adequate first-aid was offered to her on site, we also offered to pick up her medical expenses for this injury. And we are willing to reimburse her medical expenses now as well if we receive the bills from her. After doing all this, her behaviour leaves us amazed.”
—Agencies