London, December 11: VEENA Malik says the stress caused by the FHM India scandal has aged her.
The Pakistani model- actress, who is suing the publishers of the magazine, claims the cover was doctored to make her appear nude when she actually posed in clothes.
But she has revealed that since launching her lawsuit, she has been threatened in an attempt to get her to drop it. Malik said: “ I feel completely cheated.
They’ve added 10 years to my age. They threatened to sue me if I don’t keep quiet.” The 33- year- old appeared naked on the cover of the December issue of FHM India with just her arms and legs covering her modesty, sporting a tattoo of the initials “ ISI” on her arm.
The image sparked outrage in her homeland.
She said: “ The image we shot was completely different to the one on the cover. I was wearing hot pants and they promised me they would cover my upper body with multiple tattoos…. Instead, they removed the hot pants.” She also claims the editor- inchief Kabeer Sharma and the journalist who interviewed her refused to respond to her calls following the release of the issue, despite being in daily contact with them prior to the shoot.
Since then, Malik says she has received a legal notice from FHM India which she claims was “ aggressive” in tone, and threatened her with character defamation if she did not retract her allegations.
Malik said: “ I did not sign any contract and refused to until I was given final approval of the images. I was never sent the pictures but I was assured they were the same shots taken on the shoot in November… There was only one week between the shoot and publication — they were obviously in a rush to print them without my consent.” Malik, who is currently in Mumbai filming, has since been disowned by her father, who said he wishes his daughter to be punished.
The actress said: “ Of course I am sad and upset but hopeful too, when I go back home, I will sit down and make him understand… “ I am still speaking to my mother and sister, they know what the reality is, but they are upset about the way it was projected in the media.
“ The way the media is projecting it, calling it a nude shoot, the shoot is not a nude shoot.” Sharma vehemently denies the pictures are doctored and that the actress has been threatened, insisting Malik has given contradictory accounts of the shoot.
He said: “ I invite her to furnish one shred of evidence, SMS or a witness to support her allegations which are as concocted as the ones she’s been making all week.
“ No one in FHM has had any conversation with Malik directly or indirectly to make this ‘ imagined threat’…. The one message that was sent to her was one that told her she could call the office landline if she wanted to have a conversation.
“ Malik was more than comfortable with the filming, it was only when the cover and the grenade shots were done was the videographer asked to stop filming to make the team more comfortable ( not her).
“ She did not even once ask him to stop filming.” Malik claims no such video was taken and that when she noticed filming taking place, when she was fully clothed she asked them to stop as it was not in line with the previous agreement to only shoot images