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It was after the advent of MeToo in the year 2018 that many women came out with their harrowing stories in the film industry wherein they opened up about facing sexual misconduct and harassment. Amid this, if there was one person whose name came under the scanner incessantly, it was director Sajid Khan. Around 6 to 8 women shockingly accused him of sexual misconduct and harassment. Now, actress Esha Gupta joins the queue wherein she accused the director of abusing her on the set of Humshakals.
Esha Gupta Recalls Sajid Khan Abusing Her On The Humshakals Set
According to a report in Pinkvilla, Esha Gupta recalled in an interview with Siddharth Kanan how Sajid Khan abused her on the set of Humshakals which made her almost walk out of the film. She budged only when the producer of the movie and Sajid himself apologized to her. However, the Jannat star hinted that the filmmaker passed some extremely problematic comments which did not go down well with her. She said, “Kuch log baat karne se pehle sochte nahi hai… frustrated hote hai.”
Sajid Khan’s Behavioral History Of Being Inappropriate And Downright Crass
Just two months back, in April, actress Navina Bole also opened up about her plight when the Heyy Baby director asked her to strip off her clothes and sit in front of him in a bikini back during an audition when she had participated in the Gladrags pageant. The actress was left so traumatized that she made an excuse to leave his house and not return indefinitely.
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Apart from this model Paula also accused him of inappropriately touching her and asking her to strip during an audition through a social media post in September 2020. A journalist had alleged that Sajid Khan forcibly kissed her in the early 2000s when she had gone to his house for an interview. Khan’s former assistant director Saloni Chopra along with actresses Rachel White, Mandana Karimi and Aahana Kumra also recalled their harrowing experiences with the Housefull director.
Despite his given history, Sajid Khan was given a platform like Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss 16 to revamp his career. The show almost brought in some sympathy for him to showcase him as a man who has undergone a lot of victimization and pain in his life. Imagine the trauma this must have caused to his victims to see their abuser being given a national platform to revive his image? Not only is this problematic but this also dangerously normalizes people meting out such inappropriate behaviour and getting away with it.
Only Sajid Khan being ousted from Housefull 4 as the director should not have been the only solution to his inappropriate behavior against so many women. There was a need for the filmmaker taking a strong accountability of his actions which to my knowledge, never happened. Even though as a poetic justice, the director’s filmmaking career has reached a dud but did the women who had come out with their traumatic experiences with him, get their justice? I certainly don’t think so.
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