Two days after businessman Raj Kundra was arrested for allegedly making pornographic content and publishing it through mobile apps, and was subsequently sent to police custody till July 23, model-actress Poonam Pandey released videos sharing her experience of her brief association with him and his company, Armsprime.

On February 8 last year, Bombay Times had reported that Poonam Pandey had filed a criminal case against Raj Kundra and his associates for fraud, theft, and leaking her phone numbers. She recorded her statement on December 7, 2019, at Bandra police station. Since they refused to lodge an FIR against Raj Kundra and his team, she moved Bombay High Court.

Poonam filed a writ petition — a criminal case — against Raj Kundra, and his associate Saurabh Kushwah. While Poonam’s legal battle continues, the latest turn of events regarding Raj Kundra’s alleged involvement in a pornography-related case has brought new facts to the fore.

In response to Poonam's allegations, in February last year, Raj had told BT, “I had invested in a company called Armsprime Media last year, which makes apps for celebrities. I am not aware of the petition as I exited the venture in December 2019 with a sale to the current shareholders.”

In a chat with Bombay Times yesterday, Poonam shared, “I remember writing emails to those associated with Armsprime (a company that created apps for celebrities), including Raj Kundra, regarding the theft of my content and invading my personal space just to make a few bucks. That was unacceptable. I had written them emails to stop using my content on their app even after I terminated my contract with them. I told them specifically that what they were doing amounted to fraud and theft. The reply I got from them was that we welcome your legal action, and this reply was from Raj Kundra himself.”

She further added, “When I signed an MOU with them, which lasted for a month, it became clear that they were cheating and were extremely unprofessional. I terminated my contract with immediate effect. Getting into a professional collaboration with these people was the biggest mistake I made in my life. They are frauds. My life became an open book. I went through another level of trauma. I cursed myself for sharing my passwords and credentials with their team. When we reached out to Raj’s team, we were told that we won’t be paid until I signed a contract with them and started working with them again. I flatly refused. How could I do it knowing that these guys hacked into my accounts and personal space? Yeh log samajhte kya hain khud ko? He couldn’t convince me because he knew that I wasn’t relying on just his app for work. In fact, I wanted to terminate any and all association with Armsprime. I wanted the app they had created in my name, taken off the internet. Shortly after, I was approached by Raj Kundra personally to be a part of another app — by the name of ‘HotShots’. It was 100% pure blackmail. It was like — Do this or suffer the consequences. On my refusal, my private mobile numbers were leaked on the internet on the aforementioned app.”

Poonam said that Raj exited the venture (Armsprime) around the same time when she approached the Mumbai Police regarding the matter. She says, “I approached the police to file a complaint against the company for leaking my phone numbers with a message ‘Call me and I will strip for you’, and they told me that they would have to investigate. I don’t know what happened there and later, I came to know that he had backed out from the company around the same time when I was trying to lodge a complaint against him and his associates. Even if that’s true, the theft of data took place before he resigned from the company. Court case wahaan par bana unke against. That’s why the Bombay High Court took the matter very seriously. I had all the proof to substantiate my claims.”

She continued, “Back then I thought that I had screwed up by sharing my credentials with them. However, today it’s obvious that these guys cheat people. Jo bhi hai, jaisa bhi ho raha hai and the way things are moving, it’s for everyone to see.”

She also said that if someone like her can be harassed to this extent, she can sympathise with the plight of other lesser-known girls. She said, “I have seen videos of certain girls and I am told that they are retracting from what they said about him earlier. I understand their predicament. If this guy can do this to me, I can understand what these girls must be going through.”

Mahatma Gandhi is the name Poonam Pandey thoughtfully picks to suggest who signifies ‘competition’ to her. “He’s possibly the most controversial figure in our country and I’d rather compete with him than Sunny Leone or Kim Kardashian,” she deadpans. If controversies are what she is courting, the 30-year-old is not far from her goal since they follow Pandey like Mary’s little lamb, and have helped turn her from just another aspiring model to an adult entertainer who earns big bucks.

Her lockdown diary in brief: In May, Pandey was booked by Mumbai Police for flouting lockdown rules by taking a spin around the city in her car. In September, within a fortnight of marrying her boyfriend Sam Bombay, she filed an FIR against him for assaulting her during their honeymoon in Goa. Even as they returned on Instagram as “Mr & Mrs Bombay” curled up in each other’s arms, much to the consternation of the Goa police — a complaint was filed and the couple detained — this time for allegedly shooting an obscene video at the Chapoli dam in the coastal state.

“We thought it was a beautiful location to shoot in. I had no clue that it was a government restricted property. I’ve shot in places and temperatures you can’t even think of taking your clothes off,” she says. “But I accept my fault. Goan people are so sweet.”

Born to a father who sold industrial furnaces and a mother who stayed at home “to deal with a girl like me”, the self-proclaimed “kameeni of the family” was shoved into the spotlight of her own making when she pledged to do a full monty for the Indian cricket team if they beat Pakistan in the World Cup semi-finals in 2011. “I was 17 when I started modelling. I was a Gladrags and a Kingfisher calendar model yet why was no one noticing me?” It was a door, she felt, she had to prise open herself.

And then India not only thrashed Pakistan, they also won the World Cup. “But the BCCI did not allow me to strip,” she rues. “Dar mujhe bhi lagta hai. When I made the statement, I did it for fun. How would I know there’d be 25 court cases and mahila morchas after me... It’s like a teenager had ruined Indian sabhyata with five words. I thought to myself, ‘take it easy Poonam — there’s a long road ahead, you can do 500 controversies but this one — go easy!”

She parlayed that burst of notoriety into nearly 10 years of building a pout-and-strip empire. As producer and star of her own show on an app that makes her private moments public, Poonam has managed to catapult herself from a one-room apartment in Thane’s Tilaknagar where she lived with her family of five to a four-storeyed bungalow in one of Bandra’s spiffiest corners, Turner Road.

According to reports, her net worth as of 2020 is estimated at $7 million, that’s Rs 52 crore. Asked if it is true, she laughs: “See, I don’t want anyone coming after me but yes, it’s very close to the kind of money superstars make,” she concedes. Sitting in her plush living room, Pandey comes across as a blend of brash and bashful; of middle class roots and full-on diva as she flutters her eyelashes and takes stock of her life today buffered by “six staff members, three chefs, a husband who isn’t as traumatised by the things I do unlike my parents, a BMW luxury sedan and a Porsche on my wishlist.”

As we plunge awkwardly into her marital troubles after she packed her newlywed husband off to jail, she says without batting an eyelid, “We had a fight but in my case everything becomes big. I can be a volcano at times. We’re good now!”

Has her family come to terms with her sexuality, we wonder aloud. “Pehle bahut maar padti thi and my mother still doesn’t know everything. But even as an irresponsible child, I’m responsible for taking care of them and they love me for that.”

As she shows off her younger sister who has studied law and a successful businessman as elder brother, “I’m a little stupid doing all this silly stuff,” she giggles. But Pandey is remarkably aware of how she managed to build her brand — of barely covering nor actually showing any of her lady bits — to appeal to people’s sense of voyeurism. What started as amateur videos with titles like ‘My Bathroom Secrets’ and ‘Jingle Boobs for Christmas’ that she calls “kindergarten stuff” shot on her phone graduated to a personal app in 2017 that now has a “70-member crew” working behind the scenes. “In my first video I was topless,” she chortles. “It went viral, I saw the numbers growing and now it’s turned into a business.”

Entering her app which, she claims, has 2.5 million subscribers, is almost like stepping into a virtual playboy mansion that invites you into her “private room” with a horny camera on the loose. At first glance you see a gallery of short films with curtains pulled back on Pandey in various stages of undress — clutching her bare breast, leaning on a broken kitchen sink in a garden, or simply lying naked in bed caressing a guitar — all cheekily behind a red filter. The game plan is smart. She uses “native currency” in the form of hearts to seduce followers into membership tiers — classic, royal and private club — which could leave one poorer by Rs 9 to Rs 9,999 but would unlock these lurid fantasies. “Indians make up 60% of my fan following, 30% are in the US and the rest global,” says Pandey who refuses to be labelled a porn star. “What I do isn’t porn, it’s erotica. It’s the difference between an android phone and an iPhone. I’m an iPhone.”

For someone with an ability to court attention with anything she does including one of the five movies she starred in — Nasha, playing Mrs Robinson to a teenage boy and angering political outfits who burnt the posters — Pandey has barely appeared (no pun intended) on the silver screen. “I get offered web series. A lot of sex scenes is not a problem because I understand what people want from me. But there has to be a story, no?”

So what goal has she set herself ? “To be like salt!” she says, cocking her head to one side. “See, you can add any masala to your food but if salt is missing, it’s tasteless. But if you add too much salt, it could ruin your food. I want to be that right amount of salt in people’s lives,” she chuckles.