Actress Swastika Mukherjee has accused the producers of her upcoming Bengali film, (which also stars popular actor Parambrata Chatterjee), of sexual harassment and has lodged a police complaint (General Diary) in Kolkata’s Golf Green PS against a few persons associated with the production house. She has also lodged a complaint with East India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA) & Artists’ Forum along with all the evidence, said a statement from her PR team.

Furnishing copies of the threatening emails sent to her and her manager, the award-winning actress of Qala and Pataal Lok fame, wrote in her complaint (copies of which are in possession of this publication), “One of the partners, Mr. Sandeep Sarkar, has been threatening me and my manager, Shristi Jain for the past month, with derogatory and sexually harassing emails along with death threats.”

Swastika added, “Mr. Sandeep Sarkar has also admitted over emails that he has shared our email ids with his associates/colleagues/friends namely Ravish Sharma, who in turn has sent sexually harassing emails with my nude images, threatening to hack my social media accounts and upload all such nude images on them and on porn sites. (sic)”

While declining to go into details about the complaints registered by the producers and Swastika with EIMPA, the association’s president, Piya Sengupta, said, “Yes, both parties have complained to us. We’ll be meeting Swastika and producer Ajanta Sinha Roy on Thursday afternoon in this regard.”

In her complaint, Swastika alleges that even the film’s director Arindam Bhattacharya “is also being constantly maligned and threatened”. Speaking to us, Arindam said he has been facing similar harassment even before it began with Swastika. “I’m planning to lodge a formal complaint with EIMPA (Eastern India Motion Picture Association), so I can’t get into the details before doing so,” he said. 

When asked if he had ever met the persons in question, the director said, “I had heard that Sandip Sarkar had come down to Kolkata sometime in April last year, but I never met him. This Ravish Sharma is supposed to be some friend/associate of Sarkar. But frankly speaking I have no clue who he is. But the fact that he threatened to topple Srishti from her scooter shows that he’s privy to information about all of us, which is disturbing. ”

In one of the emails (in screenshot above) allegedly sent out by US-based producer Sandip Sarkar, he accuses the actress of unprofessional conduct and threatens to take legal action against her and her manager on charges of “extortion of money and not delivering as per the contract for the marketing and promotion and as promised before”, to the US Consulate and also take legal action.

He also claims to have taken similar action against the director and says, “Remember, a US passport is very powerful and not many countries want to mess with a law-abiding US citizen abroad. (sic).”

Swastika in her police complaint has denied all charges of non-cooperation and extortion made by the producer (legal contract was attached in her complaint).

In her complaint Swastika mentions one Ravish Sharma who had allegedly attached a morphed nude image of the actress and warned her manager of certain consequences if they don’t participate in the promotional activities. “Please look at 1 instagram and the two photos. I am a brilliant computer hacker ....It is very easy for me to do lots with your Ma’ams photos. Now with the ChatGPT, I can make the worst kind of p--films from her photo collection on the net now and my imagination and flood the Bengali and any groups in Bengal or anywhere. (sic)”

The same person also allegedly threatened the manager in an email (in screenshot) “Hello Bi**h. I heard you ride a scooter. Do you know scooters are not very safe? One small hit while in motion can topple the scooter. So think about all the dangers involved and be careful of what might happen and take extra safety measures. Thanks and think logically, what you are doing. (sic)”

— With inputs by Upam Buzarbaruah