Refuting Tanushree Dutta’s claims that he had asked her to take her clothes off and dance for a song sequence, director Vivek Agnihotri served the actress with a legal notice and issued a statement through his lawyer. Dutta, after having accused Nana Patekar of sexual harassment, also alluded to Agnihotri without naming him.
“These allegations are deliberate and have been borne with an intent to attract publicity and wreak personal vendetta against my client with mala-fide intentions,” said Agnihotri’s lawyer who also requested the media to refrain from irresponsible reporting, failing which his party would be forced to take action.
While the actress has already been served with a defamation suit, he said that they were also in the process of initiating a defamation suit against the news agencies that had published the report.
Meanwhile, Sattyait Gazmer, who served as an associate director for Agnihotri’s 2005 movie Chocolate, said that he “found the entire story wrong” and that “nothing of the sort ever happened.” “I ran the sets so I know best what happened,” he added. “I asked her to take off her bathrobe and shoot in film costume which she wore under the bathrobe. It’s a pink dress – anyone can check on YouTube. The song was “Bheega Bheega Sa December Hai”. In her interview, Tanushree and the media have made it sound as if she was asked to strip, which is absolutely false.”
Gazmer also said that he couldn’t imagine asking an actress to strip on a film set where 200 people were spectators.
“This incident has no gender bias or any harassment or any bad behaviour. It is not about man vs woman. Everything is not feminism. It’s about work. About how two professionals talk on a film set. This is how anyone in this world will shoot and even if these media people are asked to shoot they will also ask the heroine to take off outside clothes and shoot in costume. Even if a hero was there, the same command would be given to him also,” wrote Sattyajit Gazmer.
Stating that he was willing to sit down with Dutta and go over the episode, he said “I stand with women and #MeToo but please don’t run a media mafia for your own agenda and destroy the credibility of good people for your own selfish political agenda.”
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Meanwhile, acknowledging the receipt of legal notices from Agnihotri and Patekar yesterday, Dutta, through a statement, complained that two individuals tried to break into her house when the police officials posted outside were out for lunch. The individuals were stopped by the security personnel in the building.
She also complained of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) issuing threats against her. Dutta then declared that she was paying the price for speaking up. “This is the age-old saga of survivors in our nation. I walked away once from the same environment that was created for me 10 years ago. Found God, found my healing, found my peace and a new life in the United States of America. And now I stand to lose this new life too if I allow myself to get embroiled in the court system of India. And you wanted to know why the #MeToo movement hasn’t happened in India. This is why.”
Image courtesy: Deccan Chronicle