Had no intention to hurt people of Himachal: Urmila Matondkar

Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, October 14

Bollywood actor Urmila Matondkar said on Wednesday that she had no intention to “hurt the sentiments of people in Himachal Pradesh” and that she had made no statements that could do so.

Matondkar was replying to a notice sent to her by a lawyer in Dharamsala, Vishav Chakshu. Chakshu had sent her a notice over some remarks she reportedly made over the drug row gripping Bollywood.

Matondkar reportedly said in response to fellow actress Kangana Ranaut’s tirade on alleged drug consumption in Bollywood that drugs were not exclusive to the industry and that Himachal, the state that Ranaut calls home, was an origin point for them. She had also reportedly asked Ranaut to help deal with the problem in her own home state.

In her response to Chakshu’s notice, Matondkar said she had not made any defamatory statement against the “great state of Himachal Pradesh” and that she was just raising her voice against drug abuse in the country.