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“I Was There” Says Journo About Tanushree Dutta’s Harassment Allegations Against Nana Patekar

byJinal Bhatt
27th September 2018
3 minute read

Yesterday, when actress Tanushree Dutta made startling harassment allegations against an actor of Nana Patekar’s stature, people couldn’t digest it. Predictably, they questioned why she hadn’t spoken up for all these years and vehemently proclaimed it a bid to get some attention.

However, in her interview with Zoom TV, Tanushree Dutta had already iterated that while she had filed an FIR about the incident that happened a decade ago on the set of the Nana Patekar starrer ‘Horn Ok Pleassss’, nobody came forward to support her.

Instead, she was ridiculed by Rakhi Sawant, who replaced her in the item song she had walked out of. And a press conference was called by the filmmakers, where she was branded unprofessional.

When choreographer of the song, Ganesh Acharya, was asked about the incident, News 18 reported him denying the allegations.

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“First of all, it’s a very old incident so I can’t really recall everything very clearly. But it was a duet song as far as I remember. Something did happen that day because the shooting was also stalled for over three hours. There was some sort of misunderstanding. But I can confirm that nothing this sort of happened. It’s a wrong statement that Nana ji called members of some political party on set. It never happened.”

 

He refuted Tanushree’s version of the events, claiming that he was already aware that Nana Patekar would be in the song, and that there was no indecent step in the choreography. Just pure dancing.

In defence of Nana Patekar, Acharya said,

“He’s a very sweet person, he can never do that. He is very helpful and he has actually helped a lot of artistes in the industry, he can never do anything like that.”

For those wondering if both Tanushree Dutta and Ganesh Acharya’s versions may be biased or one-sided viewpoints, here’s another version of what happened that fateful day on the set. And this one comes from a journalist who had nothing to do with the film or the actors, but was merely present on set to do her job.

Janice Sequeira, journalist and anchor of the talk show Social Media Star, has penned a Twitter thread that not only supports Tanushree Dutta but also corroborates the actress’ version of the story.

While Ganesh Acharya denies the presence of goons on set, Janice claims they were very much present and harassing Tanushree.

It’s to be noted that Nana Patekar continued to maintain this line of defence even during the press connference that was called later.

Janice claims that Tanushree’s version of what happened has remained unchanged over the decade, lending major credibility to her account.

Asking people to listen to what Tanushree Dutta has being saying for the last ten years, Janice hopes will give the much needed boost to the #MeToo movement in India.

Several prominent figures, including fellow actresses Swara Bhasker and Shruti Seth, journalists and social media influencers have shared the thread and asked people to stand with Tanushree and all the other women like her, who attempt to speak up against harassment but are shut down.

https://twitter.com/visshy_it/status/1044916908405878784

So far, there has been no official statement from Nana Patekar or anyone else associated with the film. Will this case usher in the #MeToo movement in Bollywood, a cesspool of sexual harassment, or will it just become another news that died a quick death? It remains to be seen.

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