French actress held hostage in her home over property dispute
By Ajit Rai, Senior film Journalist
Goa: Award winning 75 years old French actress Marianne Borgo has been held hostage in her home in Calangute, Goa, since Monday 23rd February. She has filed a case for injunction in trial court to support her legal claim of a house she bought in 2008 from a lawyer Francisco Sousa, now deceased. After Sousa’s demise of Covid symptoms in 2021, his widow Nirmala Sousa started harassing Borgo, frequently trying to repossess the house, even while the case is sub-judice.
According to Marianne Borgo she is being tortured and locked inside a room without any food being supplied and is neither allowed to meet anyone. Moreover she is being forced to leave the house. The matter is pertaining to the ownership of her house.
The situation is very serious and French actress Marianne Borgo is unuable to assist to the premiere of her film Danny goes Aum in Delhi on February 4 and to be a jury at the Rajasthan film festival ( 1-5 February) Jaipur because she has been sequestered by a maffia gang in her home molested after they broken the locks early morning after she left to attend a yoga class they had time to steal her ipad , transformers , computers and they destroyed all her papers and family pictures and posters and took away all her trophies were her name was written. She is closely associated with many film festivals in India and abroad in various capacities and making a bridge between India and France.
On January 23, Nirmala Sousa’s sister Gaya and six private security guards blocked the exit gate with a jeep and restricted entry to anyone except a domestic maid. They have arranged for water and electricity supply to be cut off, leaving Borgo sitting in the dark, fearing for her life, after being previously attacked by them when she tried to enter her bedroom. The suit has been going on for the past year and Borgo and her lawyer eagerly await a decision.
She said that the police is saying it is a civil problem becsuse Marianne has started a court case concerning the house she bought in 2008 but never had the right papers because Francisco Souza who died last year from Covid never handle the papers having sold the same property 4 times to foreigners only between 1998 and 2008!
Marianne Borgo is a French actor, trained at the Centre d’Arte Dramatique and the Conservatoire National d’Arte Dramatique. She has worked extensively in film, television and theatre across Europe and India. Her credits include the original The Bourne Identity, A Little Princess, and the Franco-American rom-com/drama Le Divorce alongside Kate Hudson, Glenn Close and Stephen Fry. She was a recurring character in the French thriller series Profilage, and most recently led in the Indian production Danny Goes Aum. She has just completed photography on a new TV film for 2023.
Marianne was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the 38th Film Festival of Alexandria in 2022, has received a Gandhi Prize and is on the jury of several Indian film festivals.
