Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 8, 2018)

Barely a fortnight after Tanushree Dutta sparked the #MeToo movement in Bollywood, Vikas Bahl found himself in the eye of the storm over the weekend. The director was accused of sexual harassment by a former employee of Phantom Films, which was further corroborated by his ex-business partner Anurag Kashyap on Twitter. In light of these allegations, mid-day has learnt that the National Award-winning filmmaker has apparently been dropped from a series that he was to direct for Amazon Prime.

A source reveals, "The project is being produced by Monozygotic Solutions, which is owned by Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman of Roadies fame. The show was a reboot of an Australian series that revolves around couples spicing up their sex lives. It was scheduled to roll by year-end. But with the latest controversy, Amazon wouldn't be comfortable backing it with Vikas on board. The production house has discussed the matter with Amazon, and will soon start scouting for another director."

The weight of the allegations has understandably impacted the Queen (2014) director's other project ­— Hrithik Roshan starrer, Super 30, which also has him as a co-producer. Buzz suggests that Bahl will be kept out of the promotions. "The post-production has to be done under his supervision because it would be impractical to bring someone new on board at this stage. But after that, Vikas will be asked to dissociate himself from the film," says an insider.

Bahl was also in advanced talks to helm a show for Ekta Kapoor's ALT Balaji. mid-day reached out to Kapoor and Amazon Prime. Neither had responded till the time of going to press.

Yet another allegation surfaces
Rajat Kapoor was accused of sexual misconduct by two women on Twitter yesterday. A journalist revealed that he misbehaved with her during a telephonic interview, asking her about her vital stats. Another woman stated that the actor had hounded her with phone calls and made her uncomfortable with his demand of shooting a film with her "in an empty house."