Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who played the lead role in Vikas Bahl’s Queen, has accused the director of sexual harassment on the sets.
In an interview to India Today, the actress recalled the times she met the director and said, “Every time we met, socially greeted and hugged each other, he’d bury his face in my neck, hold me really tight and breathe in the smell of my hair. It took me a great amount of strength and effort to pull myself out of his embrace. He’d say ‘I love how you smell K’.”
She added, “Even though Vikas was married back in 2014 when we were filming Queen, he bragged about having casual sex with a new partner every other day. I don’t judge people and their marriages but you can tell when addiction becomes sickness. He partied every night and shamed me for sleeping early and not being cool enough.”
A few days back, Huffington Post published an article where a woman accused Vikas of sexual harassment.
The report claims that while many people, including Anurag Kashyap, were aware of the incident for a long time, they did not do enough. Kashyap, Madhu Mantena, Vikramaditya Motwane and Vikas were co-founders of Phantom Films, till it was dissolved on Saturday.
According Huffington Post, the dissolution of Phantom Films could reportedly be attributed to the allegations against Vikas as he is the co-owner.
Phantom was a dream, a glorious one and all dreams come to an end . We did our best and we succeeded and we failed. But i know for sure we will come out of this stronger, wiser and will continue to pursue our dreams our own individual ways. We wish each other the best.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 5, 2018
Kangana’s response came on the day Anurag Kashyap announced that Phantom Films has been dissolved.
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Kangana said, “It’s amusing that after the news of Phantom dissolution many are finding the courage to attack him. Shame on such a society. Go look at yourselves in the mirror, a bunch of cowards, attacking powerless men won’t begin a movement. Either we do it or we don’t. Let’s not be opportunists. If we are a shit society, let’s accept it, at least have that much honesty within yourself. Selective outrage will only serve as entertainment, this will just be tabloid gossip and nothing else.”
Super 30 starring Hrithik Roshan is Phantom’s last project which will clash with Kangana’s Manikarnika on 25 January 2019.