Tanushree Dutta, who recently accused veteran actor Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of Horn OK Pleasss in 2008, got support from several people in the film fraternity. However, a larger number of people have sided with Nana on this, while the producer and director of the said film even resorted to making sexist remarks against the actress.
On Thursday, Times Now released tapes of a sting operation done by the channel, in which producer Samee Siddiqui, director Rakesh Sarang, Cine & TV Artists Association (CINTAA) member Raza Murad and former FTII chairperson Gajendra Chauhan were purportedly caught shaming Tanushree Dutta.
“Should I tell you the truth? I feel that day she was on her periods. So, you get irritated. Small touch or maybe something else, even I don’t know what exactly happened because I wasn’t there,” Siddiqui could be heard saying in the video.
Earlier, in an interview to Zoom TV, Tanushree had said, “I want to take names – actor Nana Patekar, producer Sami Siddiqui, director Rakesh Sarang, and choreographer Ganesh Acharya. When Nana Patekar misbehaved with me, he voiced out that he would do an intimate step with me as well in the song, which wasn’t mentioned in my contract. It was supposed to be a solo sequence of mine.”
She had in 2008 taken the matter to CINTAA but her complaint was not heeded to.
On 2 October, the association extended its support to the actress and issued a statement on Twitter.
According to the statement, the decision taken back in July 2008 “was not appropriate as the chief grievance of sexual harassment was not even addressed”.
In the tapes released, Gajendra Chauhan, who headed the scrutiny panel at CINTAA when Tanushree’s complaints were addressed, said Tanushree needed to “prove herself as victim”.
“What can CINTAA do? It cannot act like police. It can’t make Nana Patekar appear before it. How will it prove that Nana is the culprit? Ask them to come to court and speak. If it comes to going to court or police, not one of them will come forward,” Chauhan was caught saying.
“First she should prove herself as victim! Just by saying, you won’t become a victim. You were roaming as a victim for 10 years!” he added.
Rakesh Sarang, on the other hand, believes Tanushree came on air with the allegations to become part of the popular reality show, Bigg Boss. “Now girls are giving their bedroom sex videos on the internet. This is what has happened to this industry. People are taking their clothes off for publicity. Their attitude is, so what if we get a bad name, at least we’ll get publicity,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tanushree Dutta, who had accused Nana Patekar and Vivek Agnihotri of sexual misconduct on the sets of two different films, has been sent legal notices by both of them saying she defamed them.