Photographer alleges gun threat by security on set of Jolie, Pitt film
An Indian photographer says security guards punched and threatened him with a gun after he approached actress Angelina Jolie while she was shooting her latest film, about the life of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was killed in 2002.
Gautam Singh, a freelance photographer working for the Associated Press, says he was inside the gated community where Jolie had been filming scenes.The movie, A Mighty Heart, is being shot in Pune, India,130 kilometres southwest of Mumbai.
Singh says he spotted the actress in the back of a taxi, filming a scene for the movie. He approached her and gave her his card, which was accepted.She was then driven off.
At that point, two Indian guards and an American guard approached him. According to the photographer, the guards shouted at him and one of the Indian guards punched him in the face. Singh says he swung back and hit him in the face.The other Indian guard,he said,"Grabbed me and the first guard punched me again."
Singh alleges one of the two guards then drew a gun and said he would be shot if he did not leave.He says he was let go and he left, but now sports a bruise under his right eye.
Geyer Kosinski, Jolie's manager, said the actress doesnât own or control the set, but he would not comment directly on the incident.
It marks the second violent altercation between bodyguards and the media since Jolie and her partner, actor Brad Pitt, arrived in the city last week. Hordes of paparazzi have been tailing the couple and their children: Maddox, 5, 18-month-old Zahara and newborn Shiloh Nouvel.
On Oct. 8, television cameras caught one of the coupleâs security guards grabbing a British photographer by the neck and verbally abusing him.The incident was beamed out by CNN.
A Mighty Heart, produced by Pitt's Plan B company, is based on a book by Pearlâs wife Marianne, played by Jolie. Dan Futterman is playing the role of Daniel Pearl. Futterman was on the TV series Judging Amy and was the screenwriter for the 2005 film Capote.
Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan while researching a story on Islamic militants.
Security problems in Pakistan made it impossible for the film to be shot there.
With files from the Associated Press