New Delhi: Pakistani actress and model Veena Malek is beginning to get used to multi-tasking, it seems.
On the one hand, the controversial actress is getting geared up to appear on Swayamvar Season 4, an Indian reality show, while on the other she is in talks with her lawyer and has sued an Indian men's magazine, FHM, over a nude photo shoot.
She has asked FHM to withdraw all copies from news-stands and pay $2 million (Dh7.34 million) to her in damages.
The photo shoot has created uproar in Pakistan and the Indian media has been lapping it up.
Saeed Naqvi, a senior journalist, television commentator and a distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, said: "It is obviously media excitement that has blown up the trivial issue. I do not see how it can be of any relevance to them. No one knows for sure about it [the photograph]."
Jagdish Yadav, former photo editor at Unicef, said: "There is no way an average reader can know whether an image is morphed. Technical know-how is so advanced that one can easily put clothes on and off anyone digitally these days."
Veena's lawyer Ayaz Bilawala has claimed that the photographs have been "tampered" with and "doctored" and said the actress felt "cheated and duped".
Though he has admitted the photo shoot did take place, he maintained she had some clothes on. And the photos that were shown and approved by her were not "sans clothes".
Video evidence
But Kabeer Sharma, editor of FHM, is not taking it lying down. He told Gulf News: "Veena's claims are false and I have a video to prove the shoot's authenticity. We did the shoot on November 23 in Mumbai in the presence of 7-8 people, including the stylists."
He claimed to have two e-mails sent to him by Veena in which she mentioned she was so excited and liked the photographs — shot by Vishal Saxena — and was "looking forward" to seeing them in print.
"I can understand her situation after the backlash she has got from Pakistan, but it's serious for our magazine to have received a court notice. We have forwarded the notice to our legal department for appropriate action. And we intend to file a counter-suit," Sharma said.
The actress is also shown sporting Pakistan's Inter-Services intelligence spy agency's initials ISI on her arm in the nude photograph on the cover of FHM's December issue. Sharma claims it was his idea to have ISI written on her arm and Veena suggested having it in block letters.
"But to say now that she thought it was some Indian company's name is being too naïve," he said.
