Filmmaker Vikas Bahl, who was accused of sexual harassment by a former employee of Phantom Films, has been cleared of all charges. The Queen director who was removed from Hrithik Roshan starrer Super 30 will now be given credits for directing the film.
According to Mumbai Mirror, an internal inquiry committee set up by Reliance Entertainment — the 50 per cent stakeholder in Phantom Films — has cleared him from all charges when the complainant didn’t show up despite repeated reminders.
Earlier, when the charges gathered momentum under the wave of #Me Too movement, it brought about the dissolution of the production house (Phantom) which was a joint venture of Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane, Anurag Kashyap and Madhu Mantena.
S Shibasish Sarkar, Group CEO, Reliance Entertainment, confirmed the news to Mumbai Mirror: “Yes it is true that the internal complaints committee has exonerated Vikas. With the committee clearing Vikas, we don’t have a choice but to reinstate his credit as director of Super 30.”
After coming out against Bahl in 2017, the complainant reiterated her charge in 2018 in a HuffPost article in the wake of the MeToo movement. In response to the article, Anurag Kashyap had also put out a public post on his Twitter handle.
My statement in light of the recent HuffPost article and breaking up of Phantom . There are two pages.. pic.twitter.com/WCAsaj6uFR
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 7, 2018
Kangana Ranaut had also called out the director for inappropriate conduct and Hrithik had in fact pointed out that he couldn’t work with someone who is “guilty” of such “grave misconduct”.
— Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) October 8, 2018
Vikas, on the other hand, has always denied the allegations and even filed defamation cases against Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane.