A few weeks back, Tanushree Dutta, who as we speak, is on her way to the US, kickstarted the Me Too movement in India, after she renewed a decade-old sexual harassment case against Nana Patekar that took place on the sets of 2008 film Horn Ok Pleassss. Soon after, a lot of prominent names had come under the scanner, having being accused of sexual misconduct.
From Vikas Bahl, Sajid Khan, Kailash Kher, Anu Malik to Jatin Das, Subhash Kapoor and Subhash Ghai, many have been accused of sexual harassment.
What is noteworthy is that Tanushree’s fight for the Me Too movement didn’t go in vain and she garnered a lot of support from the B-town celebs. Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, to Kiran Rao, and other women film-makers voiced their support in favor of the #MeToo movement and took steps to ensure that they don’t work with anyone who has been accused of sexual misconduct. Case in point, as soon as Saloni Chopra and other women accused Sajid Khan of sexual harassment, Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol and the cast of Housefull 4 voiced their opinion of not working with anyone who is a sexual predator.
Ahead of the release of Why Cheat India, Murder actor Emraan Hashmi got talking about the Me Too campaign and said that thanks to social media, the Me Too movement started and gained momentum. Emraan Hashmi told India Today, “I’m very happy that this movement started. It has penetrated culture now. It started in the US, but people weren’t very aware of it then. Social media really helped it to become big.”
Also, Emraan Hashmi said that his production house has taken several precautionary steps to ensure safety of women at his workplace. Emraan said, “Personally, my production house Emraan Hashmi Films has a contract that everyone has to sign. It’s a list of pointers that amount to sexual harassment on a film set. It safeguards female members and forewarns male members about what not to do. I would hire 50 percent women on my film sets and empower them.”
However, Emraan forgot the fact that the director of his film Why Cheat India Soumik Sen, was also accused of sexual harassment by several women on the popular social media site, Twitter. The actor’s silence on Soumik was conspicuous, but Soumik has been left out of a lot of promotional activities of the film.
Why Cheat India is Emraan’s second production and the film will hit the theatres on January 18, 2019.
