Man claims he was punched near movie set

PUNE—An Associated Press freelance photographer says security guards protecting a movie set where Angelina Jolie is shooting her latest film punched and threatened him at gunpoint Friday, in the second run-in between security guards on the set and the news media this week.
Jolie is in the western Indian city of Pune to film scenes for "A Mighty Heart," a movie about the life of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.
Most of the scenes are being filmed inside a spacious bungalow in the Pune suburb of Aundh, chosen because the area resembles Karachi, Pakistan, where Pearl and his wife Mariane spent time.
The bungalow is located inside a gated community that has been largely closed to the media.
The photographer representing the AP, Gautam Singh, said he gained legitimate entry to the area and was accosted by security guards after giving Jolie his business card.
Singh said he was down the road from the bungalow when he spotted Jolie in the back of a taxi while filming a scene from the movie. When the filming paused, he said, he put down his cameras and approached Jolie to give her his card, which she accepted through the window of the taxi before it drove off.
At that point, he said he was approached by one American security guard and two Indian guards, all of whom verbally abused him. One of the Indian guards punched him in the face and he swung back, also hitting the guard in the face, Singh said.
Then, he said, the other Indian guard "grabbed me and the first guard punched me again."
Singh said the first Indian guard then drew a gun and said he would be shot if he did not leave. The American guard did not take part in the scuffle, but witnessed the incident, the photographer said.
Singh said he was then let go, and he collected his equipment and departed. Jolie did not witness the incident, he said, adding that his face was bruised under his right eye but he was otherwise uninjured.
Jolie's manager, Geyer Kosinski, called the AP's headquarters in New York to complain about the story written about the incident, saying Jolie didn't own or control the set. He would not comment on the incident.
Later, his office said all requests for comment had to be e-mailed, but an e-mail sent to the address provided was returned. Further messages seeking comment were left at several numbers listed for his office.
The altercation was not the first that security guards have had with a photographer since Jolie and Brad Pitt arrived late last week in Pune, where hordes of photographers, television cameramen and reporters have followed their every move.
On Oct 8., as the couple was leaving the Le Meridian hotel where they are staying, one of their security guards manhandled a British photographer trying to take their photo, grabbing the man by his neck and verbally abusing him.
Video of the incident was broadcast on India's CNN-IBN news channel, and the Hindustan Times newspaper identified the photographer as Sam Relph of Barcroft Media. The newspaper reported the security guard had shouted at photographers to stop shooting the couple and grabbed Relph when he refused to put down his camera.
The couple's children — Maddox, 5, Zahara, 18 months, and 4-month-old Shiloh Nouvel — have accompanied them on the trip to Pune, about 100 miles south of Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment hub.
Dan Futterman portrays Daniel Pearl in the movie that will be co-produced by Plan B, a production company founded by Pitt and his ex-wife, actress Jennifer Aniston.
The movie is based on an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl."
The Wall Street Journal reporter, Pearl, was abducted and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy.—Agencies