B'wood divided over #MeToo moment, Nana Patekar weighs action

MUMBAI: Actor Nana Patekar's lawyer Rajendra Shirodkar on Friday said he would send a legal notice to actor Tanushree Dutta over allegations that Patekar had molested her during a film shoot in 2008. Earlier, Dutta called out director Vivek Agnihotri for making indecent remarks during the shooting of his film 'Chocolate' in 2005. She said it was her co-stars Irrfan and Suniel Shetty who had stepped in to defend her after Agnihotri asked her to "strip and dance" to give Irrfan his cue.


As the debate surrounding India's own #MeToo movement began to grow, veterans of the Hindi film industry, including Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan chose to reserve comment. Both were questioned during a publicity interview for an upcoming film. Bachchan said, "Neither is my name Tanushree Dutta nor is my name Nana Patekar. How can I answer this question?"

Khan said, "Without knowing the veracity of something or the details of something, I don't think I can comment. But whenever something like this does happen, it's really sad. Now if it has happened or not is for people to investigate." However, actors Farhan Akhtar, Priyanka Chopra, Sonam Kapoor, Richa Chadha, Swara Bhasker, Parineeti Chopra, Twinkle Khanna, Siddharth and director Anurag Kashyap came out to support Dutta.

Akhtar replied to a Twitter thread by journalist Janice Sequeira, who said she was an eyewitness to the incident involving Patekar.

He wrote, "This thread is very telling. @janiceseq85 was there at the time of the incident being debated today. Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not & her story hasn't changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned." Chopra replied, "Agreed.. the world needs to #BelieveSurvivors."

Sequeira had related how goons began banging the door of the vanity van where Tanushree was. Police arrived afterwards. Patekar said, "

Meri beti

jaisi hai", which had made no sense to the journalist then.