Durga Jasraj on a discordant note

Durga Jasraj, whose company Art and Artistes runs the popular show ‘Idea Jalsa', has landed in a soup over non-payment of dues for an editing job last year.

Durga Jasraj and (below) the letter

Mridu Khosla of Zcyphher Studios said Durga and her team had approached her last April to make a show reel. "The work was completed in a month and after Durga approved it, the master tapes were delivered. We waited for a few months for the payment but Durga's team cut off all contact with us," said Mridu, adding that the total outstanding amount was Rs 3.19 lakh. A copy of the invoice sent to Durga's company around June last year is in hitlist's possession.

Khosla alleged that after Durga did not respond, she sent her a text message saying, "Thank you for ignoring my demand notice. At this time, I will have to approach the court and I will let the media know about it."

Durga, on her part, has registered a complaint with Versova police, accusing Mridu of threatening her. "We are trying to make the payment but Mridu is being unprofessional. Have you ever seen me talking about such stupid things to the media?" she retorted.

Neeraj Jaitly, director of Art and Artistes, said Zcyphher Studios had promised to complete the editing work in eight days against a payment of Rs 80,000. "We got the final edit after more than a month. Two months later, we got an invoice of Rs 3.19 lakh. Our approval was not taken for any cost escalation," he said.

He said despite the delay in delivery, they agreed to pay Rs 1.5 lakh because the agency had reworked quite a bit. "But they turned hostile and threatened to defame our company and Durga using the media. That is why we sought police intervention." he added.

Khosla says, "Never have I been called to a police station and that too, because of someone who owes me money. The videos that we worked on are available online for everyone to see."