BOMBAY TIMES (October 8, 2018)

Vikas Bahl’s former partner at the now-dissolved Phantom Films, issued a statement on the controversy. Excerpts...

“While at Phantom, I did everything I could, within what I was told by my partner and his lawyers. For legal and financial decisions, I was fully dependent on my partner and his tearn. They took care of those things, so I could focus on what I did better, creatives. His word and his team's word on any matter used to be the final word for us.

And according to legal advice provided to me then, I was told that we had very limited options. Now in hindsight and after taking stock of things myself, I can quite see how I was ill-advised. Since we were told then that there was very little we could do, we decided to take a strong moral stand whilst also taking steps in our power as part of the company. We first suspended him. We barred him from the premises, took away his signing authority. If that wasn't enough, I named and shamed him privately amongst whoever asked about it. While others in the industry were only rumour-mongering, it was me who was responsible for bringing out Vikas' name publicly by speaking with Mumbai Mirror on an anonymous basis and the publication eventually carried a front page article about the incident. Nothing about it was under wraps. It's been out there for more than an year...

On the basis of legal advice being sought then, we were told that we were handicapped by two things — that we were dealing with an equal Promoter/director who actually ran the company, and that there was no provision in our contract to sack him on the grounds of misconduct… What makes it worse personally for me is that the victim did not share the incident with me for a long time because she saw me dealing with my depression. She put herself through a personal hell to protect me and I could not because I was unfortunately ill-advised that there was little I could do. That being said, I fully understand that it is no excuse whatsoever and all of my actions above I'd hope are demonstrative of every intention on my part to set this right.

Now why we didn't have the necessary clause of misconduct on the contract that protected the erring partner, is the question to be asked… This industry is extremely ill-equipped to handle matters such as sexual harassment, copyright, censorship and all the things we put ourselves in dock with. A large part of the reason for this is that there is clearly lack of correct advice and awareness of legal remedies. It has taken me my own personal experience of battling the censor board over 9 years to learn that the problem with censorship is not the board, but our lack of understanding of the law. We are often advised by entertainment lawyers who represent both sides. We are often advised by people who place importance, not in the creative man, but in the one handling the money.

None of this takes away from the wrong that has been done and perhaps never will. I am better aware today to not allow ourselves to be in a similar place ever again. I am deeply, truly sorry to the woman in question and she has known this all this while. This will never happen again on my work premises ever again.”