Madhya Pradesh: Vidya Balan refuses minister’s dinner invitation, Shooting unit stopped next day in return

Bhopal :According to the Bollywood reports, Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Vijay Shah himself had invited actress Vidya Balan, who was shooting there, for dinner, which Vidya Balan refused. As a result, the DFO stopped the film’s shooting unit the very next day. However, as word spread and it reached to the higher officials, the shooting unit got the green signal again. Vidya Balan had reached Balaghat for the shooting of her film ‘Sherni’.

Approval was sought for the shooting of film in Balaghat from October 20 to November 21. Meanwhile, Forest Minister Vijay Shah expressed his desire to meet Vidya Balan. This was scheduled for November 8 from 11 am to 12 pm. Then at four o’clock in the evening, the Forest Minister was to go to the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra and spend the night there. But he stayed at a rest house at Bharveli in Balaghat district. There are manganese mines in Bharveli.

At 5 o’clock in the evening, he went straight to meet Vidya Balan and expressed his desire to have dinner with her. Vidya Balan was staying in Gondia, Maharashtra, so she refused to have dinner with the minister as she had to leave for Gondia. The next day, when the film’s shooting team arrived at the location as usual, District Forest Officer G. K. Barkade stopped the vehicles of the film’s unit. Shooting stopped. As soon as the conversation escalated and reached the superiors, the orders were released and then the shooting could start.

Giving information about the whole incident, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) Narendra Kumar Sanodia said that he was with the Minister during his meeting with Vidya Balan. However, the CCF said he was unaware of the dinner invitation. He confirmed that the DFO had stopped the vehicles of the shooting unit the next day. After that, the principal secretary called and explained to the DFO that shooting of films in his state is rare, and if such harassment takes place, Madhya Pradesh will be discredited and then the shooting started again.