Actor-writer Zeishan Quadri is in a legal tiff with former business partner and producer Shalini Chaudhary, after she alleged that the Gangs Of Wasseypur actor sold her luxury cars without her knowledge and threatened her, too. Now, he has come forward to state that she is just trying to tarnish his image.

Last month, Chaudhary, who worked with Quadri on Crime Patrol Dial 100 and a film Halahal (2020), claimed that the latter mortgaged a luxury car of hers for Rs. 12 lakh after dodging her calls for the past year. He has been booked for cheating and criminal breach of trust under sections 420 and 406 of the IPC. “The case is completely baseless. I challenge her to put out evidence,” Quadri tells us.

Putting forth his side of the story, the actor says, “In June-July last year, she requested me to help her sell her car because she was in dire need of money. One of my acquaintances agreed to buy it and gave Shalini two cheques, one for Rs. 6 lakh (self-cheque) and another for Rs. 13 lakh. Soon after, I got a call from her son saying they are unable to clear the self-cheque at the bank. I spoke to the buyer, who transferred the money to me and I to Shalini.”

He goes on to claim that he sent Rs. 5.75 lakh to Chaudhary, and told her he would give her the remaining Rs. 25,000 in cash, after which they can return the Rs. 6 lakh cheque. “Her son agreed. But they didn’t clear transaction,” says Quadri, adding that soon he started getting abusive calls from them, claiming their car was “getting sold at Rs. 26 lakh”.

“They used such filthy language,” he says, and goes on to state that he was assaulted by Chaudhary’s sons on January 24 this year. “They asked me for Rs. 16 lakh for the car and Rs. 10 lakh for Halahal. I refused. After the [assault] incident, I was under so much trauma. I’ve filed a complaint against them. Inquiry is underway,” he says.

While the court order in the case filed by Choudhary is slated to be pronounced on September 7, Quadri says he will file a defamation suit against her. “I will also take forward my FIR in the assault case. She is trying to destroy my career and I will not remain silent,” he sums up.

With two web projects, Asur and Halahal, last year, Barun Sobti was noticed by “the mainstream industry”, but his transition to films wasn’t smooth. After gaining popularity with TV show Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon? in 2011, his Main Aur Mr. Riight (2014), Tu Hai Mera Sunday (2017) and 22 Yards (2019) were stuck for the longest time.

Talking about his experience, Sobti says, “I won’t say I am a victim of the industry… Here, you have to dig your well every day. In fact, today I have a lot of work but it is still not easy... just that today my set of problems are different.”

His chocolate boy image got a total makeover with his web roles last year. “Image matters a lot, and majority of actors are busy building their image rather than working on their craft… these are sensible people, who know how the industry functions. And, at the same time, there [are those who] see potential in an actor beyond their looks or their image. That’s how I was cast in Asur and Halahal,” he explains.

Sobti, 36, admits there was a lot of resistance while casting him in Asur and Halahal, but producers Tanveer Bookwala and Zeishan Quadri were sure about him. “Their confidence gave me confidence… I am thankful to them that they pushed for me. They are visionaries,” he says.

Screenwriter, actor and producer Zeishan Quadri has only one thing to say to people who say his movies, like the Gangs Of Wasseypur series, are too violent or full of unnecessary expletives. "Come to Wasseypur in Dhanbad, come to my hometown, and stay there. You will see that all of this [portrayed in the film] exists. The question to be asked then will be, 'will you come back to tell the tale?'", he says in a telephonic interview. Even as he works on the third edition of the crime thriller, he is basking in the reviews of Eros Now's just released film, Halahal, which he has co-written and produced. The movie is inspired by the 2013 Vyapam scam, which was about the alleged rigged nature of the examination, admission, and recruitment system for government jobs and educational institutions in Madhya Pradesh. It was said that the exam, taken by millions of students each year, involved a system where many of them were actually paid proxies for other undeserving students. Over a hundred people were arrested by the police, but none convicted, since most of them either suspiciously died in custody or were released on bail. "It was my genre. I like stories where the good people become bad, and the bad become good," says the actor-director, 37.

The movie has been praised for its unsentimental approach, and addressing the frustration people face with the system. It reveals the true nature of matters in India—where nothing really changes, regardless of what may happen.

Quadri says he has never hoped to bring about change through movies. The writer, who grew up in Wasseypur, and worked at a call centre in Delhi for a few years, moved to Mumbai in 2009, to become an actor. His acting career may not have taken off, but he wrote the landmark movies, Gangs of Wasseypur 1 and 2, which focused on the coal mafia, with director Anurag Kashyap. The films gave rise to a genre untapped until then—the hinterland crime thriller. India watched the movies and asked, does this really happen? "It's the situation shown in Halahal as well. Good people become corrupt, and mostly it is the circumstances that are to blame. Some very powerful forces are at work here. It's the stark reality, and one that nobody wants to admit. If you admit it's reality, then you have to change, right? But if you deny, then life moves on as it has."

He says his inspiration is the society around him—what he sees on TV or what comes up in conversations with people. But he is very clear that he doesn't aim, or hope, to change society. "I am only here to offer entertainment. I don't expect people to change their behaviour after watching my movies. Two months after Wasseypur was released, a man was gunned down in the middle of the road in my mohalla. Post that, many murders have happened there. The power struggle I discuss involves a lot of money, and that matters the most. If people haven't learnt right and wrong from their parents, how will they learn it from me?"

Quadri is currently awaiting the release of Hansal Mehta's Chhalaang, and also working on the direction he wants GOW3 to take. "We are wondering if we should continue the story or start afresh. It's all in the air right now. But soon, we will crack it!"

We wish him luck for that and can't help but ask, if Wasseypur is so crime-ridden, doesn't he worry for his parents who live there?

"Everyone in Wasseypur knows who I am—Zeishan Quadri—much before the movies released. No one dare do anything," he laughs.

Barun Sobti plays the lead in Halahal on Eros Now, inspired by the 2013 Vyapam Scam