Hours after Imtiaz Ali made a bizarre comment about women’s safety in cinema by sharing anecdotes, the filmmaker retracted his foot-in-the-mouth comment. During his appearance at the IFFI Goa, the filmmaker weighed in on the subject. He shared that there have been three instances where he sent someone back home for compromising his female star’s security. In one such anecdote, Imtiaz revealed that he sent away one of the ‘Highway’ crew members who hovered a bit too much around a young Alia Bhatt. However, moments later, he took to social media to deny the incident. Following his comments on the sensitive issue, the ‘Jab We Met’ maker faced criticism for making blanket statements.
In an Instagram story, Imtiaz Ali wrote, “Making a slight clarification. There was no misdemeanour on the sets of the movie Highway and nobody was sent back from that unit. The unit of Highway was exemplary.”
Imtiaz’s statement came in a panel discussion on women’s safety in Bollywood during the 55th International Film Festival of India. The filmmaker revealed that there have been three incidents in his directorial career where he took a step to ensure the female actor’s safety. One such was during ‘Highway.’ Sharing the anecdote, he revealed sending a crew member away as he was trying to ‘hover’ around Alia Bhatt who was just 20 at that time. “We were shooting on the rural highway with Randeep and Alia. There were no proper vanity vans back in 2013. Alia had to change, go for nature’s call in different, unusual places. Once I had to send this guy back from the set when he was trying to be around her during that time.”
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Furthermore, during the conversation around the casting couch, the filmmaker made a blanket statement dismissing the gravitas of the issue. “I have been a director in the Hindi film industry for 15-20 years. I have heard a lot about the casting couch. A girl comes in, she’s scared, and she feels the need to compromise. Let me tell you, if a woman or girl cannot say ‘no,’ her chances of succeeding don’t necessarily increase. It’s not like if a girl compromises, she’ll definitely get a role”. Subsequently, his comment drew the ire of filmmaker and writer, Vanita Nandi.
Taking to social media, Vanita wrote, “Why has IFFI Goa selected him to speak on behalf of women? Is it to whitewash the truth? If men like him had the courtesy to abstain from speaking on a subject they have no experience about, one will believe that change is indeed taking place.”