Sajid Khan has been called out by several women in the #MeToo movement. The actor-filmmaker has been accused of sexual misconduct, and as a result, he has stepped down from the director’s post of Housefull 4. Now, Housefull (2010) actress Lara Dutta’s husband Mahesh Bhupathi has spoken at a recent event about Sajid’s rude and vulgar behaviour.
Mahesh attended the recently concluded, We The Women summit. It was at the event, where he revealed that Lara had complained to him that a certain Housefull co-star of hers was subjected to rude and vulgar behaviour by Sajid. The film starred Deepika Padukone, late Jiah Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez (for a special number, Dhano) and Lara Dutta. “When we were dating she was shooting for Housefull and we were in London at that time. She would come home and her closest friend was her hair dresser and they both would be complaining about how one of her co-stars was being treated by the director. Rude, vulgar,” he said while in conversation with journalist Barkha Dutt.
In earlier statements, Dia Mirza had also termed Sajid’s behaviour “obnoxious and sexist”. Bipasha Basu had also spoken up about Sajid.
Mahesh went on to recall that he had told Lara how “all four of you,” who were working together, were complicit in enabling Sajid’s behaviour. “I told her you guys are all complicit, all the four of you who were in the film (and) were listening to what he was saying and not telling him it’s not ok. So at some level you guys are complicit and she agreed,” he said.
Barkha went on to justify their stance as she said it would have been difficult to take on Sajid because people’s work depended on him. And speaking up could end up in them losing their jobs. Mahesh, went on to say that he did understand that aspect but it still didn’t justify one brushing off something as serious as indecent behaviour.
