Antony Varghese lashes out at director Jude Anthany Joseph over cheating claims: ‘Misused his success to tarnish my image’

“I returned the advance money to the producers soon after in the presence of producer Badusha and actor Idavela Babu. We parted with a handshake. This happened three years ago and now he’s making allegations out of nowhere,” Pepe pointed out.

Launching a scathing attack on director Jude for “making baseless allegations” against him, Pepe said: “2018 was a spectacular work. I was blown away by it and I am a big fan of this Jude movie. While he should have been focusing on celebrating his success, Jude levelled these allegations against me for no reason. He misused his success to tarnish my image. To speak truthfully, it is not anger that fills me in regard to him, but rather a profound sadness. Soon after creating a brilliant super hit movie, Jude went on to attempt to ruin my future.”

Pepe stated that if Jude had only accused him personally, he would have likely ignored the controversy. “But he brought my family into this. My mother, wife, and sister have been left devastated and shattered.”

Referring to Jude’s allegations that Pepe took an advance of Rs 10 lakh from the film’s co-producer Arvind for his sister’s wedding, the actor, with the help of purported material evidence that substantiate his claims, said: “I returned the amount I took from Jude on January 27, 2020. It was approximately nine months later that my sister got a marriage proposal. She got married on January 18, 2021. There is a gap of one year between these incidents. Did I time travel to take the money from him to marry my sister off?”