Kangana Ranaut-Journalist Ugly Spat: Balaji Telefilms apologises for the incident after 'boycott Kangana' step by Entertainment Journalists' Guild of India

The Entertainment Journalists' Guild of India has decided to boycott Kangana Ranaut, a delegation from the group told producer Ekta Kapoor on Tuesday, two days after the actor's spat with a PTI journalist at a promotional event.

READ | Kangana Ranaut-Journalist Ugly Spat: Entertainment Journalists' Guild Of India Announces Boycott Of Kangana, Sends Letter To Ekta Kapoor. Read Here

Members of the Guild also demanded a public apology from both Kapoor and Ranaut, journalists present at the meeting said.

Kapoor, who is producing Ranaut's upcoming film "Judgementall Hai Kya", agreed to issue the apology and expressed regret over Sunday's incident. Here's the official statement that was released a few minutes back from the Balaji Telefilms production:

Official Statement from Balaji Telefilms:

To whomsoever it may concern: 

A lot is being reported about the debate that ensued between our film JudgeMentall Hai Kya's actor and journalist Justin Rao, at the film’s song launch event on July 7th, 2019. Unfortunately, the event took an unpleasant turn. 

While the people involved in it fairly held their own perspectives but because it happened at the event of our film, we, as the producers, would like to apologize and express regret for this untoward incident. 

We would like to maintain that our intention was not to disrespect or hurt anyone's sentiments.

Our film JudgeMentall Hai Kya releases on July 26th and we urge the media to not let this one incident hamper the team effort that has gone behind making the film.

"We, as a guild, have collectively decided to boycott Ms Ranaut and not give her any media coverage," the delegation said in its letter to Kapoor, adding that the boycott will not affect the film or the rest of the cast. The journalists conveyed to the producer that they have decided to "boycott" Ranaut from future events until the actor apologises for Sunday's incident.

The members said in the letter that Ranaut had lashed out at PTI journalist Justin Rao even before he could complete the question that he was asking at the press conference to promote the film on the pretext that he was running a "smear campaign" against her.

Ranaut had also accused Rao of writing negatively about her film "Manikarnika". The journalist denied the allegations and the actor's claim that he personally messaged her and spent three hours in her vanity van. He said he met the actor briefly for an interview and there were no personal messages.

Ranaut's sister Rangoli Chandel said on Twitter that the actor will not apologise. "I promise one thing that there will be no apology from Kangana," she tweeted and described the journalists as anti-national.

"Judgementall Hai Kya", which also features Rajkummar Rao, is scheduled to be released on July 26

(Inputs from PTI)