An Egyptian businessman is suing a member of Bahrain's royal family for $42.5 million for backing out of an agreement to meet Bollywood film stars. The businessman, Ahmed Adel Abdallah, has alleged that the royal entered into an 'exclusive' oral agreement with him to arrange his meetings with 26 Bollywood stars, but backed out of their agreement after meeting just four of them.
The Times of India reports that the case was heard in a London court. The Egyptian businessman Abdallah said that he was introduced to Sheikh Hamad Isa Ali Al Khalifa, who is a distant cousin of the Bahrain's king, by his uncle. He alleged that Hamad had given him a list of 26 Bollywood film stars that he wanted to meet, "in particular one star called Shah Rukh Khan". Each meeting was to be 15-25 minutes long and cost $1.5 million, with a bonus of $500,000 for every third meeting.
Hamad met four stars, namely Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh and Aditya Roy Kapoor in Mumbai and Dubai between January and March. However, he has alleged that after these meetings, Hamad breached their contract and refused to pay the amount they had agreed upon.
In response, Hamad has denied that that any such exclusive agreement took place for this specific amount of money. He also said that the Egyptian businessman began demanding "very large sums to arrange further meetings", which he did not agree to. The London High Court also declined Hamad's plea to stay the proceedings in London and shift the case to a court in Bahrain.
No Bollywood stars have been called as witnesses so far.