Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan on Thursday dodged a question about actress Tanushree Dutta's sexual harassment allegations against veteran actor Nana Patekar -- which is likely to kickstart Bollywood's own #MeToo movement. At a film's trailer launch, a mediaperson asked Amitabh and superstar Aamir Khan to share their views on the news.
Amitabh steered clear from the controversy by saying: "Naa toh mera naam Tanushree hai, naa hee Nana Patekar. Kaise uttar dun aapko iss sawaal ka? (Neither is my name Tanushree, nor is it Nana Patekar. How do I answer this question?)"
On the other hand, Aamir said: "Without knowing the veracity of something or the details of something, I don't think I can comment. It is not right for me. But I would like to say that whenever something like this does happen, it's really sad. Now if it has happened or not it is for people to investigate."
Tanushree, who had first raised the allegation against Nana in 2008, brought the spotlight back once moren on her unsavoury experience of working with the actor in the film Horn 'Ok' Pleassss, in an interview with News18.
“The entire industry saw what happened but there was not one word of condemnation from anybody. Every single person in this country remembers my incident and this was something on national TV for three days but even today there’s a stoic silence on that. So, my question is, ‘Who is going to believe these hypocrites?’ These are the people who stand up and raise their voice against women empowerment,” said Tanushree as she called out Bollywood’s deafening silence over sexual harassment.
Tanushree said the entire incident shook her soul to the core and took away her belief from humanity, recalling, “It was a very complicated year for me. Firstly, nobody from the industry spoke up for me publicly, and on the top of that they continued working with the perpetrators.”
While a string of Bollywood celebrities, including filmmakers and actors have called out casting couch and sexual harassment in the industry, naming and shaming is yet to become a reality, even as Hollywood counterparts have remained outspoken ever since mass allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein came to light. Comedian Bill Cosby has recently been sentenced upto 10 years in prison and has been branded a "sexually violent predator" by a US court for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004.
(With IANS inputs)
Comments
0 comment