The hearings continue at the High Court in London.Washington: A Bahraini royal told England's High Court on Monday he was astonished at being taken legal action against over an alleged offer for access to top Bollywood stars.Sheikh Hamad Isa Ali Al Khalifa is alleged to have actually struck an agreement with Egyptian business owner Ahmed Adel Abdallah Ahmed to pay for meetings with 26 leading stars from the Indian film industry.The offer was apparently worth 35 million pound and Ahmed is taking legal action against the royal for 16 million pound he claims he is owed in charges and costs.Sheikh Hamad stated he has a lifelong passion for Bollywood cinema and wanted to meet stars including Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh and Aishwarya Rai.In his witness statement, the royal stated he paid Ahmed about 2.7 million pound for meetings with Bollywood idols, but just since he wished to please him , instead of due to any contractual responsibilities.

When I learned of the claims that Mr Ahmed was making versus me in these procedures, I was astonished, he stated.

I was grateful to (Mr Ahmed) for helping me to fulfill 4 top Bollywood artists.

I revealed my gratitude regularly by words and my gestures: in total, he got around 2.7 million pound from me in relation to these meetings.

I considered this sum was comfortably in excess of the quantity that he had actually sustained in expenses and costs, consisting of in fees for the Bollywood artists.

I do not think that this offers him licence to demand large sums of cash to which he is not entitled.

Ahmed claims that, during a telephone call when Sheikh Hamad was in London in January 2016, the set made an oral arrangement that he would be paid more than 1 million pound for each meeting, plus a perk of more than 350,000 pound after every 3rd meeting.Sheikh Hamad competes the supposed arrangement is entirely fictitious .

The hearings continue at the High Court in London.