From sexual harassment to non-payment issues: Allegations levelled against Taarak Mehta producer Asit Kumarr Modi

Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah producer Asit Kumarr Modi has been facing a lot of allegations in recent times. After Jennifer Mistry Bansiwal leveling sexual harassment case against him, former Bawri played by Monika Bhadoriya called him out as well. Over toxic behaviour, non-payment issues and many more, here are the allegations made on producer Asit recently.

ETimes TV exclusively broke the news of Jennifer Mistry Bansiwali quitting the show and what led her to do so. Jennifer also filed a case of sexual harassment against him. She said, “Asit Modi has made sexual advances towards me many times in the past. Initially, I ignored all his statements because of fear of losing out on work. But it is enough now I won’t take it anymore. They tried to forcefully stop me on the sets and were shutting the gates and not allowing me to go out.”

Recalling an incident from March 2019, Jennifer said, “We went on a shoot to Singapore on March 5. On March 8, Asit Modi complimented me on my lips and said they were worth kissing and also invited me to his room. I was scared and two of my colleagues helped me. They would always come in the middle whenever he came close to me. Even on the set, he used to pull my cheeks and say how sexy I was.”

Narrating other incidents that happened with her in the past, Jennifer said, "During pregnancy, I didn’t want to leave the show, they sacked me because Gurucharan Singh (who had earlier played Roshan Sodhi) was leaving. I requested them a number of times and even suggested alternate storylines but they made me leave the show. I was ready to work till the 9 months of my pregnancy but they asked me to leave. There have been many incidents when Sohail deducted my half day's salary even after working for 15 years. I had informed them well in advance of a half day but they purposely called me at my logout time and when I protested they deducted my half-day money. When we complain to Asit Modi he refuses to interfere. There has been continuous mental and sexual harassment.”

Recently, Monika Bhadoriya, who played Bawari from 2013-2019, told Hindustan Times in an interview, “There is lot of gundagardi on the sets. He calls himself ‘God’.” She also called him out for his unruly behaviour and shared that he had made her sign a contract to not speak ill about them in media.” She added, “Jitna torture unhone kiya hai kisi ne nahi kiya hai.”

Monika, Jennifer and Shailesh Lodha had spoken about non-payment issues. While Monika had around Rs 5 lakh stuck with the production house post she left, she also said that other actors like Raj Anadkat and Gurucharan Singh’s money is also stuck. Jennifer spoke about her salary deducted to half despite being in the show for 15 years.

It has been almost a year since Shailesh Lodha quit the long-running show and the issues between Asit and him are still unresolved. Shailesh filed a case against the producer before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for not clearing his dues. However, Asit reacted saying that they wanted to clear the dues but Shailesh didn’t want to clear formalities. Shailesh told BT, “I do not want to comment on the case, as it is sub judice. I would just like to say that Taarak Mehta wasn’t my first show, and I didn’t approach Asit Modi to cast me. I have been an established poet since 1981 and worked in many TV shows.”

Shailesh Lodha shared a poem on social media about colour-changing chameleon. While the poem was a satire, fans commented asking if it was a dig at producer Asit. While ETimes TV exclusively broke the news about Shailesh quitting the show, reasons included his work dates not being used properly and the exclusivity factor in his contract which stopped him from exploring other good projects coming his way.