Sajid Khan accused of sexual harassment, Subhash Ghai accused of rape
More names from Bollywood make headlines as India's MeToo movement takes off; director Sajid Khan - Farah Khan's brother, and Khalnayak director Subhash Ghai have been accused of sexual harassment and rape, respectively.
Race 3 actor Saloni Chopra has alleged in a blog post that Sajid Khan sexually harassed her while she worked as his assistant in 2011.
She wrote: "He was famous for his interview questions. He asks questions like ‘do you masturbate?’ and ‘how many times a week?’… he also asked me if I’d ever been sexually abused, I said yes. Then he asked weird questions like if I would ever get a breast job, and talked about how sex is really a mental connection."
"...by the end of the interview I was in tears, and I wasn’t entirely sure why. I didn’t know if it was because I felt somewhat uncomfortable around him, or because I’d opened up too much."
The actor also said that he would call her at odd hours justifying it by saying " the industry never sleeps and work happens at all hours… except he wasn’t talking about work" and make inappropriate talk on the phone and in person.
Ungli actor Rachel White, responded to Chopra with her own story of harassment at the hands of the director, saying, "Believe you with your story. And I told you mine so that more people can believe you and stop making women look like attention seekers."
Indian journalist Karishma Upadhyay detailed two incidents where she was harassed by Sajid; once when she went to interview him in the early 2000s and another time when she was asked to work with him on MTV.
Sajid Khan, who was directing Housefull 4 has stepped down since the allegations came out and tweeted, "I must take moral responsibility of stepping down from my directorial post."
His sister Farah Khan has responded to the allegations by saying, "If my brother has behaved in this manner then has a lot to atone for."
Akshay Kumar, who is a part of the Housefull 4 cast, posted on Twitter. "I've requested the producers of Housefull 4 to cancel the shoot until further investigation.. I will not work with any proven offenders and all this who have been subjugated to harassment should be heard and given the justice they deserve."
His wife Twinkle Khanna also urged the Housefull 4 cast to take a stance against this.
In the other case, Taal director Subhash Ghai was accused of rape by a woman who says he spiked her drink and sexually assaulted her. Her story was posted by Twitter user Mahima Kukreja who has also outed AIB's former member Utsav Chakraborty for sexual harassment.
The filmmaker has denied the allegations, called them "a fashion to malign anyone".
"As I hear some allegation made against me in the air from section of media. It’s very sad that it’s becoming a fashion to malign anyone known, bringing some stories from past without any truth or half-truth, if at all. I deny strictly and firmly all false allegations like these. I will go for defamation certainly."
