Sahila Chhadda calls out Poonam Dhillon, Padmini Kolhapure’s entitled behaviour: They don’t even enter lifts with other actors

Mumbai, Oct 3 (IANS) Actress Sahila Chhadda has spoken about what she described as the entitled behaviour of senior actors Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure in the film industry.

In a recent conversation with IANS, Sahila called out the actresses, alleging they look down upon others, and refuse to even share lifts with fellow actors and even make fun of people’s English-speaking skills.

She also spoke about an alleged incident involving Poonam Dhillon and a woman who reportedly tried to reach her urgently while she was on a film set.

Talking about the behaviour she has witnessed, Sahila said, “You know, they have been doing so many wrong things, insulting people. If an actor comes, then don’t go in the lift together. “No, I won’t go in the lift. I won’t do this and that with them.” Hey, what are you? All actors are the same. There are no small or big actors. There are only good actors or bad actors.”

She further questioned the thinking behind such behaviour and said that people in the industry should not be treated differently based on their status. “I don’t know what they are thinking about themselves in their head. Have seen so many bigger stars but never seen this kind of entitlement and attitude” she said.

Sahila then went on to share an example involving Poonam Dhillon. Recalling the incident, he said, “I would like to cite an example. An actress called because she was in trouble and wanted some help. But Poonamji changed her voice and spoke to her, pretending to be her own manager, probably just to avoid helping out, saying that ‘I am her manager. You talk to Poonam Dhillon in the office’.”

Actor Vikas Verma added, “Poonam ji has become the president and she came here to serve the members but she is not even ready to talk to them,” she added.

Sahila Chhadda further elaborated on the ongoing CINTAA issue and explained her side of the matter. She said that she has been a member of the association since the 1980s and has represented it as an executive committee member for over 20 years.

Talking about the recent developments, she said that the members had come together to work for actors, but the focus somehow shifted away from the actors and towards internal disputes.

“It’s very unfortunate that we all came together to do work for the actors. But somehow instead of looking at the problems and resolving, we are all wandering around.

And we used to have fewer meetings. We used to fight a lot in meetings. Poonam and Padmini ji used to insult people. We used to go to them and ask them legitimate questions. If we wanted to ask a question as an actor or see a document, they always avoided answering.”

All the issues that they had raised were random and were not in the interest of the actors. The atmosphere had become very bad. We would have two-hour meetings, eight-hour meetings and even nine-hour meetings. The issues being discussed were not the main issues. There were genuine issues, but nothing was getting resolved.

So, the best thing was that we decided to resign. We could have told them that we were removing them and there is a clause in our constitution that allows us to do that. But we all are actors, and we did not want to disrespect them. We thought the best thing to do was to resign gracefully and with dignity. That way, everything could have been settled peacefully.”

“We resigned during the last legal meeting, in which the majority of the members were present, and we took the decision to resign, but they were just not ready to accept anything and that the committee had dissolved”

“We did everything properly and legitimately So, in the last meeting on August 5, we took the decision. On August 7, we resigned. Everything was recorded in the minutes of the last legal meeting. Our constitution clearly states that if 50% or more than 50% of the members resign, the committee is automatically dissolved. As soon as we resign, the committee is dissolved and fresh elections have to be called.”

“But it is unfortunate that two people refused to accept that the committee had been dissolved. They refused to accept what was written in the constitution. We went to the trade union, and the trade union gave us a letter stating, ‘You are not a committee anymore and the committee has been dissolved. You cannot call any meetings, as they will be considered invalid and improper.’ But they were not ready to accept this. They continued to hold meetings and even called an EGM in the name of CINTAA, which, according to us, was not legal, but they still went ahead with it.”

“Apart from that, they did many other things. They misused the CINTAA letterhead, the CINTAA email ID, the CINTAA bulk messaging system, the CINTAA social media accounts and many other things. That is not right. And I don’t understand why they are not willing to accept the decision. If it had been someone else, or even if it had been us, we would have graciously said, ‘This is a majority decision. We have resigned. We will call for fresh elections, and whoever has done a good job will win.’ The matter would have ended there.

But they don’t want to end this matter. After that, they have done a lot of things, which is unbelievable.”

For the uninitiated, CINTAA dispute has been brewing for many weeks between Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure on one side, and Upasana Singh and other members on the other.

The conflict intensified after 11 members, including eight elected executive committee members, resigned amid allegations of biased decision-making.

The dispute later escalated over CINTAA documents, with Upasana alleging that Poonam and Padmini were trying to remove documents from the association’s office in a tempo and saying that a police complaint was filed.

Poonam, however, defended the move, saying the documents contained records and KYC details of thousands of CINTAA members and were being taken for safekeeping.

–IANS

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