MUMBAI MIRROR (October 11, 2018)

While Vinta Nanda’s #MeToo account involving Alok Nath was followed by the actor conveying through his lawyer that he had taken ill and would respond to the allegations after recuperating, Sandhya Mridul, who worked with the actor in a 1990s telefilm, has recounted her own ordeal.

Narrating an incident from the Kodaikanal schedule of the show, Sandhya outed Alok Nath with a long Twitter post, saying, “Every evening he would drink and every night calls were made to my room. I dreaded the ring… I had to keep it off the hook most of the times. But then he would come calling. It was a catch-22 situation. I had the hairdresser moved in to my room permanently. I was a nervous wreck.”

More testimonies entered the public domain on Wednesday, with fresh allegations against Begum Jaan director Srijit Mukherji, actor Rohit Roy, musician Raghu Dixit, composer Anu Malik and singer Kailash Kher. Srijit denied all allegations levelled against him through a Facebook post, saying, “I deny the allegations of non-consensual flirting and harassment, and believe the situation in entirety should be judged. My conversation with the said individual started with a work query which I answered at the very outset. It then, OVER TIME, went on to other topics with equal participation and was consensual…”

Singer Sona Mohapatra took to Twitter to accuse Kailash Kher of touching her inappropriately during a work meeting. Kher’s name cropped up for the first time earlier this week after a female journalist recounted how he allegedly misbehaved with her during an interview. At the time, Kher was quoted as saying that he was “extremely disappointed” to hear the accusations and wasn’t aware of the incident. In a separate Instagram post, Sona also accused Anu Malik of being a repeat offender. “This guy, Kailash Kher is a serial predator and has been for years as are many others like Anu Malik in the industry,” she said.

Rohit Roy joined the growing list of alleged offenders with an unnamed woman reaching out to a Twitter user to allege that the actor had sent her “suggestive” messages when she was about 16. “He’s harassed me on several occasions since, trying to get me to kiss him. Including when his wife (was) in the next room,” she added. Rohit denied the allegations to a publication, saying, “I checked the entire account, that’s not me at all. I would love to know who this is. It’s not actually sexual harassment or anything like that. I saw the entire thing. I think there has been some mistake. I’d love to know who I have harassed in my life.”

Down South, Raghu Dixit, the frontman of a multilingual folk band, has been accused of sexual harassment by an anonymous woman, whose account was shared by singer, Chinmayi Sripaada on Twitter.

The woman, who called the musician “among the top predators”, said he once molested her at a recording. Dixit responded by saying that the allegations were mostly accurate, but he is not a predator. The singer said he “completely misread” the situation and had immediately apologised to the person concerned and will do so again in private.

On Wednesday, Sripaada had accused veteran Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu of inappropriate conduct during a foreign tour sometime in 2005 or 2006.

Actor-filmmaker Rajat Kapoor, who was accused of sexual misconduct by a journalist and a former colleague last week, faced fresh allegations when an anonymous woman revealed on Twitter that he had tried to kiss her eight times in a dark spot years ago.

Special committee for safe workplaces

A day after extending support to #MeToo survivors and proposing a “robust process” to provide safe spaces for employees on film sets, the Producers Guild of India has set up a special committee.

Headed by filmmaker Sneha Rajani, the committee will address sexual harassment at the workplace within the industry. Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta, Ekta Kapoor, Kiran Rao, Priti Shahani, Rohan Sippy and Siddharth Roy Kapur, among others, have been appointed as members.