Bollywood flak jailed for spreading lies

Nobody ever said pimpin' was easy.  But this guy has taken it to the proverbial next level.

Onetime freelance writer-turned-flak Anant Narayan was arrested Sunday by Mumbai's Cyber Crime Cell following a complaint by former Miss India Sayali Bhagat that the head of her public relations firm was falsely attributing malicious gossip to her and feeding it to the press, reports the Times of India.

Here's the dirt:

A supposed 'royal' who's gone from freelance writing to a wannabe actor to PR, and now behind bars; that's the brief CV of Anant Narayan, the 'actor' who was arrested by the Mumbai Cyber Crime Cell from his Gurgaon residence on Sunday, following a complaint filed by actress and a former Miss India Sayali Bhagat for circulating emails – purportedly on her behalf – suggesting that she was harassed by Shiney Ahuja on the sets of "Ghost", and also by a slew of other actors, all big names in the industry. Sources told [the Delhi Times] that Anant was subsequently represented by a fleet of lawyers when he was produced in court – there were eight of them representing him – but his bail plea was rejected, going by the prima facie evidence the Mumbai Cyber Crime Cell had gathered. He was remanded to police custody till Wednesday.

Sayali had filed a police complaint against him when a slew of mails began to be sent out from his PR company – Creme Talent Management – saying Sayali is accusing Amitabh Bachchan, Sajid Khan, Arya Babbar of sexual harassment. Sayali said she had no idea either of the incidents, or of the mails being sent.

Nandkishore More, Senior Inspector, Mumbai Cyber Crime Cell, who came all the way to Delhi to arrest Anant, recounts, "On Sunday, we arrested Anant Narayan from his Gurgaon home. We reached Mumbai yesterday (Monday). Till Wednesday, he will remain in police custody and will be presented in court after that. He has been booked under IPC Sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and other relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. He was circulating press releases in which three big names of the film industry were charged with sexual harassment and misbehaviour. But the supposed 'victim', who filed the complaint (Sayali) has no information about any of the mails or the incidents stated in them, and says it is all false. His trial starts tomorrow. If the case against him is proven, he can be sent to jail for up to three years."

But wasn't he her publicist? "This guy apparently went to her house and showed her various management contracts he had bagged with other big names in the industry, and convinced her to appoint him as her publicist," said More. "And when she realized what was happening, she filed a police complaint on October 26, and we began our investigations," he added.

They say there's no such thing as bad press, of course, and Miss India deserves bonus points for figuring out a way to have her cake and eat it, too.  First she gets all the ink her PR rep generated by making her out as the industry's queen bitch (the old standby of trashing more famous actresses!).  Then she gets to look like the good guy and victim when she gets him thrown in jail.

As a longtime reader of the finest examples of Bollywood journalism such as "Under Honey's Hat" and "Neeta's Natter," I have to say that I am shocked — shocked! — to discover that not all of the stories of Ranbir Kapoor's hookups with everybody from Priyanka Chopra to Charlie Sheen (and such like) are the God's honest truth.