Bollywood Stars Drop Projects Over #MeToo Allegations Against Directors

5 weeks ago
#metoo

A wave of new allegations against a litany of film industry players has hit Bollywood, as India's own #MeToo movement continues to gather steam and impact future film projects.

Transcript

00:00The MeToo movement has caught on to Bollywood as a wave of new allegations against a number

00:06of entertainers has hit their film industry. One of India's biggest stars, Amir Khan,

00:11and his wife, producer Kiran Rao, have pulled out of a film that their production company

00:16was set to make over allegations of sexual misconduct against an unnamed filmmaker on the project.

00:22Similarly, actor Akshay Kumar said on Friday that the filming for his upcoming movie,

00:27Houseful 4, would be canceled following sexual misconduct allegations against the film's

00:31director, Sahid Khan. Since the allegations are still being legally handled, Khan and Rao

00:36did not name the person being accused of sexual misconduct. However, the pair did issue a joint

00:41statement saying that Amir Khan Productions had a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual misconduct

00:47and predatory behavior of any kind. We strongly condemn any act of sexual harassment and equally

00:54we condemn any and all false accusations in such cases. They continued,

00:58We are not an investigative agency, nor are we in any position to pass judgment on anyone.

01:03That is for the policy and judiciary to do so. So without casting any aspersions on anyone involved

01:09in this case, and without coming to any conclusions about these specific allegations,

01:13we have decided to step away from the film. Local media reports have speculated that the project

01:19in question was to be directed by Subhash Kapoor, who was accused of molestation by actress Geetha

01:24Tiagi in 2014. Tiagi posted a tweet thanking Khan and Rao for their statement.

01:30This is commendable and this is the kind of support we want so that more and more women can come out,

01:35she tweeted.

01:36As for Kumar, he was set to begin shooting Houseful 4, the latest installment of the hit comedy

01:41franchise directed by Sahid Khan. But sexual misconduct allegations against Khan surfaced Thursday when

01:47several actresses shared their experiences of being sexually harassed by the director.

01:52In a Twitter post, one of his accusers, journalist Karishma Appadye, shared how Khan

01:57exposed himself to her and then, quote,

02:00Forced his tongue down my mouth.

02:02In a statement Friday, Kumar said,

02:04For more on this story, head to THR.com. And until next time, for The Hollywood Reporter News,

02:19I'm Neha Joy.

Bollywood Stars Drop Projects Over #MeToo Allegations Against Directors | THR News

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