Bollywood baddie Shakti Kapoor has been filmed purportedly making verbal and physical advances against a young woman and casting aspersions on several film personalities in a sting operation conducted by a private TV channel.

Kapoor did not deny making the advances but maintained he was set up. He claimed he had not made any specific statements about his fellow stars but only spoke in generalities.

The sting was conducted by producer Suhaib Ilyasi for his "India's Most Wanted" programme that has now shifted to the India TV channel. Ilyasi said that the girl in the film, which was screened for mediapersons in Delhi, was a journalist working for the India-TV channel which had shot the programme.

The 40-minute clip, which was shown to reporters Saturday, will air Monday.

In it, Kapoor is seen to be making sexually explicit verbal and physical suggestions to an India TV reporter posing as an aspiring film star.

The reporter is told of various "services" that would have to be provided if she were to make it big. He also names prominent Bollywood personalities like Rani Mukerji, Aishwarya Rai, Preity Zinta, Subhash Ghai and the late Yash Johar as those indulging in the casting couch syndrome.

In the video, Kapoor was shown in a hotel room talking to the girl about how she needed to be groomed before she was introduced to producers, directors... with her face not in the frame.

"You have to do all this if you want to get big names... . You need to be groomed for three months and take acting lessons and also lose weight," says the allegedly intoxicated Shakti Kapoor.

Kapoor then turns his wrath on Ilyasi and the cameraman when he discovers he is being filmed.

"He had the choicest of verbal abuses reserved for us when he realised what happened. He threatened us with dire consequences and even said he would stab the girl. We have a number of people trapped, of which this is the first. Soon we'll be coming out with details about others in the film industry," Ilyasi said.

"It was a trap," tells Shakti when contacted.

"This girl had been in touch with me for close to five months, calling me up in the middle of the night and asking for roles. She even sweet-talked me into meeting her. Any man would fall for this," he claimed.

According to him: "I did go to meet her at Hotel Tulip Star. I am not a saint or God. I am a healthy human being. I admit that I did wrong, but the girl provoked me to make certain gestures and indulge in sex talk," he said at a press conference on Sunday evening.

Kapoor also denied naming his colleagues in relation to the casting couch.

"These people have edited the tapes. I was saying that people like Subhash Ghai and Yash Johar are institutions. They have groomed actresses like Ash, Rani and Preity. Ash is like my sister and I have worked with Subhashji. I apologise to everyone I have hurt," said Kapoor.