Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on Tuesday stepped down from his duties as a board member of the Mumbai Association of Moving Images (MAMI) Film Festival. Kashyap’s production house Phantom Films was recently dissolved after Vikas Bahl, a founding partner, was accused of sexual assault, and the director was alleged to be complicit in the matter after he failed to take action for over two years.
Kashyap, through a tweet, said that he was stepping back from his duties as a board member of the festival “until the shadow of doubt” that loomed over his “alleged complicitness in silence” was cleared. The publication of an article in Huffpost amidst of the ongoing #MeToo campaign in the country had brought to light the plight of a woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Vikas Bahl during a party celebrating the completion of Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet in Goa in May 2015.
In the light of the current events , I have decided to step back from my duties as a board member from MAMI until the shadow of doubt of our alleged complicitness in silence and not doing anything about it , is cleared.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
The woman claimed that though Kashyap was apprised of the incident in October, the director failed to take necessary actions following which she was subjected to repeated harassment by Bahl which eventually forced her to quit her job. Kashyap, through a statement, said that his lawyers had advised him that Bahl, being a founding partner, could not be completely removed from the company and he hence had to resort to other measures like keeping Bahl away from the premises and stripping him off his signatory powers.
Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena – the other two founding partners at Phantom Films have also been accused of staying silent on the issue. Apart from the statements issued by Motwane and Kashyap, the only public action initiated by the partners with regard to the incident has been the dissolution of the company, and that too after the publication of the article.
Meanwhile, Kashyap issued a series of tweets where he vehemently denied being complicit in the issue, urged people to look past the headlines and talked about the things that the incident taught him.
On the other hand I vehemently deny to have stayed silent on the issue & not doing anything about it for years. Can’t explain further to people who don’t understand due process, legalities. Have been resilient through all accusations , keep flinging them my way.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
The accused was named and shamed a long time back. For people who don’t read the details & only the headlines, I have no response. A lot of women work with me and have been around , I am answerable to them & they stand witness to our actions &our struggle to do the right thing.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
Let the purging continue .. it’s as good a time as any for all of us to introspect , look into ourselves and see how we all have been complicit in so much,with our silence, forced by fear of consequence or by choice.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
In more than a year I have questioned myself a lot, reflected on every single date I went to, every interaction of mine with the opposite sex, every encounter all that I could recall.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
And my greatest and simplest learning is that the line of consent is not just defined by “No” , most times it’s before that “No” is uttered. And the line of consent depends on the person that owns the consent. It varies from person to person.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
It’s our conditioning, even for the most woke people. Most of us are still learning , everyone who claims to know what it means , and I talk about us men , we really don’t know . None of us know . It can’t and should not be defined so simply.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
It begins with respecting the individuality and acknowledging the ownership the other has over herself, and continuing awareness of it. My mind has been restless over many day/nights &more I read everyone’s accounts , it keeps adding to it.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
I feel like just apologising for being a man. I use to feel I have come a long way from growing up in a smalltown &today I feel like somehow I am still there. There is so much I really don’t see & also see others around me pretending to see & I feel ,”inko bhi kahan dikhta hai”
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
I was lucky to have had women who slapped me from time to time to turn that boy who at 18 told the girl in his class “ladkiyon ko yeh nahin karna chahiye “ to whoever I have become today.But I also wonder ,why & when did they stopped slapping me and thought it’s enough. It isn’t.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018
