BENGALURU: An FIR has been registered against Kannada TV actor Shashikala for allegedly mentally torturing, extorting and blackmailing her husband, Harshavardhan TJ, who is a producer.
According to the FIR, the complainant, 35-year-old Harshavardhan, filed a complaint with the Vidyaranyapura police, stating that his wife and her friend, Arun Kumar, a YouTuber, began threatening him.
The couple married in 2022, after they met during a film shoot the previous year. Shashikala, who already had a son, allegedly forced Harshavardhan into a live-in relationship on the pretext of getting him a chance for acting in films and later pressured him into marriage.
When he initially refused, she filed a false rape complaint against him with the Annapoorneshwari Nagar police station. The matter was later settled in court, and they got married.
Harshavardhan claimed that Shashikala’s behaviour changed in recent months. Directors and producers frequented their house, and when he questioned her, she allegedly threatened and warned him that if he did not keep quiet, she would share his morphed photos online to damage his career in the film industry.
Arun Kumar also allegedly supported Shashikala and threatened Harshavardhan. He further alleged that his wife mentally tortured and physically harassed him, the FIR states.