It was a messy situation for actor Freddy Daruwala and the team of his upcoming film Guddu Ki Girlfriend recently. News started spreading around about how they all were being ‘held hostage’ by the hotel authorities — where they were placed by the movie’s producer — in Varanasi, over non-payment of dues.

On what exactly happened, Daruwala tells us, “Hostage is a very strong statement. It wasn’t like the hotel had a terrorist situation. I wouldn’t call it a hostage situation. In film projects, sometimes there are payment issues, dates may get up and down (schedules get modified). If the producer is new, he doesn’t have the same credibility as a reputed producer or (well-known) production house.”

On November 12, the hotel authorities requested the cast and crew to not check out from the hotel until everything was sorted. “It was a request. They didn’t say ‘Humari bandook ke saamne se agar hilne ki koshish ki toh goli se bhoon dunga’ (laughs),” says the 37-year-old actor, who still went ahead and checked out from the hotel and returned home.

“They requested me to not. They said, ‘Sir, agar nahin karo toh achha hai’. But I did it because woh log rok nahin sakte. They (crew) are not criminals. But yes, a few things did happen in those three-four hours. I don’t know if the rest of the crew were released or something like that,” Daruwala further adds.

Reportedly, actor Sukesh Anand, who is also part of the film, said that he won’t complete the shoot and reached out to actor Nupur Alankar, who then put out a tweet tagging Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.