The courts have decided for the present but the battle lines are still drawn between peeved actor Anupam Kher and Zee Telefilms over his summary dismissal from the flop game show Sawaal Dus Crore Ka.

After the Mumbai High Court on Wednesday turned down his petition against Zee, Kher is now exploring options of filing a damage or a defamation suit against Zee. "I have left it all to my lawyers. They will decide whether it will be a damage suit or defamation suit, or to apply for compensation according to the arbitration clause in the letter the court has given us," Kher said at a hurriedly called press meet in New Delhi on Thursday.

Zee, meanwhile, served a legal notice on Kher on Thursday asking him to apologise within 10 days for allegedly making defamatory statements against the company or face a Rs1,000 million defamation suit. It states that Kher had defamed the company in the press by saying the studio set up for the game show allegedly did not have proper electricity and that the programme was bad.

He had also allegedly said there was no coordination between the organisers and participants. The contract did not provide for any of the parties to talk to the press regarding the game show, Zee sources added.

SDCK will air its last episode on Friday with Kher and Manisha Koirala as hosts before taking a break to possibly emerge in a new avatar.