Sania Mirza had courted controversy recently after media reports claimed that the tennis ace had raised some expensive demands to attend a sports award ceremony conducted by the Madhya Pradesh government.
Reports had claimed that the star player demanded a chartered flight to the venue as well as a make-up-kit worth Rs 75,000 if she was to be the chief guest of the ceremony. A few reports said Sania even demanded Rs 5 lakh to attend the event.
Read: Sania's 'unacceptable' demands
However, Sania came up with an explanation on Thursday saying that she only asked for a private jet to save time. She denied asking for Rs 5 lakh to attend the event in a statement issued by her official agency KWAN.
The statement said, “As Miss Mirza was already committed to participate in an event in Goa on 29t November 2015, and since the commercial flights were taking her 7 hours (including the stop-overs) to fly from Bhopal to Goa, it was practically impossible for her to be physically present for both these events unless she was accorded the facility of a private jet for flying from Bhopal to Goa.”
It said, "The practical impossibility of getting a popular celebrity to be present in 2 different corners of the country within a short span of time sometimes has to be tackled in this unusual manner and we are disappointed at the distasteful, damaging comments being floated against Miss Mirza by certain sections."
Clarification on Madhya Pradesh Government’s Annual Sports Awards Event pic.twitter.com/Y31ThyG5Ns
— Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) December 3, 2015
