MUMBAI: Meera Chopra and Tanuj Virwani were fortunate to be staying in a different hotel, but their co-star Freddy Daruwala and 150 cast and crew members not. They were held hostage in a film shoot in Benaras because producer Illyas Guddu stated that he had run out of funds.

The film titled 'Guddu Ki Girlfriend' was being shot in Benaras for Zee.

Sukesh Anand, who plays an pivotal role in the film was also trapped in the hotel, and is finally free only since a few hours.

The actor said, "I don't think I'll complete the film. We had a harrowing time. The hotel did not let us ago. I reached out to Nupur Alankar (senior actress of TV industry who is known to help anybody in distress) and she put out a tweet, tagging Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath."

"We hadn't complained to the local police before Nupur tweeted. She acted very swiftly," Anand added.

He added, "Eight people, however, have still not been given permission by the hotel to leave the premises. That's understandable as they are the ones who were at the helm there. Why were we actors, technicians etc locked up? We were certainly not responsible for the producer having run out of money."

Tanuj said that he would complete the film as he had enjoyed it from the craft point of view.

A source says, "Things were very fishy since the past three days. The shooting had been cancelled and Meera and Tanuj had been twiddling their thumbs in their hotel."

Credits: TOI