Richa Chadha, the actor who is awaiting the release of her Hindi film Madam Chief Minister, spoke about working with the film’s director Subhash Kapoor, who was accused of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement, and said that she doesn’t believe in media trials.
In a conversation with journalist Faye D’Souza, the Fukrey actor said, “I will wait for the judgement of the court and not [go by] hearsay.”
“We heard about all the cases. This is one that actually went to court. I saw in him [Subhash Kapoor] somebody who is willing to take the legal route. Having come out of a court case last year [defamation suit against Payal Ghosh] successfully, I wanted to honour his courage to go through that and be present for the trial,” Chadha said.
In an interview of the woman who had accused Kapoor of sexual harassment, she had said that she didn’t want Kapoor to get blacklisted and hoped he would continue working, Chadha said.
“I did my research and then decided to work on the film,” Chadha added.
In 2012, actor Geetika Tyagi had accused the Jolly LLB of molesting her. She had confronted Kapoor about the incident and recorded a video of the encounter. In 2014, Tyagi filed a case against him, after which he was arrested. Kapoor was later released on bail.
Soon, Hindi actor Aamir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao issued a statement on Twitter saying that their production house was backing out of the Gulshan Kumar film Mogul that they were producing. At the time, Khan was supposed to act in the film, which was being directed by Kapoor.
“Without casting any aspersions on anyone involved in this case, and without coming to any conclusions about these specific allegations, we have decided to step away from this film,” the statement read.
However, later in an interview with Hindustan Times, Khan had said that he had changed his mind and would be working on the project.
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“At that time I felt that was the right step to take, so I took that. Today, I feel differently. I’m going with my heart. Perhaps some people will be critical of my decision. But I’ve to live with my own conscience. So, I’ve done what my heart and conscience feels is right,” he told the publication.
Recently, Kapoor and Chadha landed in a controversy when the poster of Madam Chief Minister drew criticisms for reinforcing stereotypes regarding Dalits. While Chadha issued an apology, Kapoor is yet to respond.
In her conversation with D’Souza, Chadha said that she had a conversation with Kapoor and he too felt that the depiction on the poster was a wrong decision.
Madam Chief Minister is set to release on January 22.