Mumbai: Sticking to its guns, city-based tabloid, facing a Rs 20 crore lawsuit from Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor, today (Dec 16, 2004) stoutly denied "doctoring the pictures of the actress kissing her boyfriend" and asserted that "the newspaper by carrying the photographs has not done anything illegal".

The city-based tabloid, "Mid-Day" had yesterday splashed pictures of Kareena smooching her boyfriend and bollywood actor Shahid Kapur in a suburban restaurant.

Strongly reacting to the "obscene" photographs, both Kareena and Shahid had slapped legal notices on the publication.

The 'Mid-Day' said Kareena, in her notice, has claimed that "the pictures were doctored and are completely false and defamatory".

She has demanded that the paper either apologise or face a Rs 20 crore lawsuit. The actress further said the "paper fabricated the photographs in order to create cheap publicity for it".

In a point-by-point response to the notice, the publication said, "the material in question is not a series of pictures but a video clip shot on a mobile phone".

It says that the video clip is at present with the 'Mid-Day' and shows the couple at the restaurant very clearly.

"We do not agree that photographs are obscene and paper has done nothing illegal in publishing them", it said adding that "we understand the reasons Kareena is upset but we do not think the issue is legal".