'Swagata's allegations are baseless'

MTV clears its stand on the Splitsvilla casting couch story broken by MiD DAY

After the public outrage that followed the MiD DAY story on casting couch in MTV's reality show Splitsvilla 2 (editions dated July 22 and 27), the television channel put forth its point of view.

Ashish Patil, general manager, MTV India, and senior vice-president, Creative and Content, said, "The show was shot six months back and was outsourced to Colosceum. Therefore, it will only be fair for them to react to these baseless allegations."

Meanwhile, Rajiv Laxman from Colosceum said, "I categorically deny these allegations. We have strict rules that prevent the crew from mingling with the cast. Also, the format of the show is such that the contestants themselves decide the fate of other contestants. Crew members or the show director are not involved. There's no question of seeking sexual favours. Swagata was the first contestant to be eliminated and did not spend a single night at the villa. She has no inkling of the way things worked during the shoot."
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Joanna Magee, runner-up of the show, who allegedly reached the finals by being close to the show's director, said: "MTV and Colosceum never made us feel uncomfortable with the unreasonable demands that are being spoken and written about."

Nikhil Chinapa, the channel's VJ, against whom allegations were made as well, said: "Swagata's comments are disgusting. If someone can point out what the damn favour was that I returned, in exchange for sex... I might be able to say something about this. Till then, I'm flummoxed."

When contacted, Swagata stood by her accusations. "I stayed in the villa for four days. After I was thrown out of the show, I was put up in a hotel in Goa where I stayed for three days. The hotel was home to other dumped contestants as well. It was from them that I got to know what was going on in the villa. All of them can't be lying. I was also present at the wrap-up party where I saw Joanna getting close to Hitesh, the show's director, in the swimming pool. Siddharth Bhardwaj, the winner of the show, is afraid of MTV and is not taking a stand. I have seen the porn MMS featuring Sakshi Pradhan and am convinced it is she. The video has a sequel as well. All the contestants were aware Sakshi was a sl't but no one dared to speak out," said Swagata.