Payal Rohatgi talks about how she was harassed by filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee in 2011 and the way it affected her career
Lasyapriya Sundaram (BOMBAY TIMES; October 23, 2018)

In 2011, actress Payal Rohatgi had alleged that filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee had sexually harassed her. At that point, she had held a press conference to talk to the media about her ordeal. Seven years after the incident, the actress recounts her experience and says that she stands by her allegations even today. Payal also stressed on the fact that, because she came out in the open and spoke about being sexually harassed, her movie career suffered immensely.

Payal says, “I faced a lot of backlash when I spoke about being sexually harassed by Dibakar Banerjee. Not directly, but indirectly, I was boycotted by the entire fraternity that supported the director, because it is a male-dominated set-up. It’s only recently that female filmmakers are having a say. Today, many women are speaking up about their ordeal, and the reason I am bringing up the 2011 incident again, is because I don’t want people to think that what I said back then was a made-up story. The allegations I made in 2011 were true and I stand by them even today. To give courage to others who are speaking about it, I am willing to share my story again.”

There is no need to retreat from the war front because people are against you. I spoke about my experience when it had happened with me, as I didn’t think about the repercussions. I wasn’t scared when I held a press conference to talk about my ordeal, because I felt hurt and humiliated. I was already an actress working in the industry and had done a couple of small budget films. I had done films like 36 China Town and Dil Kabaddi opposite actors like Paresh Rawal and Irrfan, respectively. I was doing well for myself and wanted to play different roles and not just be happy portraying glamourous characters. As an actor, I would directly connect with the director or producer to express my desire to work for that banner and director. Dibakar Banerjee comes across as an intellectual filmmaker. That is a deception. He told me that he had a role for me in Shanghai, for which I would be perfect. However, he also said that I should give an audition just for the heck of it. I was keen on giving an audition for the part and I did. I was staying alone at that time. Considering the fact that he had given me a chance to audition and had verbally committed that he’d give me the role, he thought that he could get away it. I felt that something was not right. Also, he had come over to my house. In such a scenario, it gets difficult to get rid of that person, because you are trying to understand what’s happening. I was called mad by an entire group of filmmakers, because they all had to stand by their brother. That was the modus operandi, because they were married men, who were trying to have affairs. Dibakar molested and harassed me when he visited my home on the day that I had auditioned for his film. He thought that he could get away with whatever he did at that moment. He felt that I would agree to it, because of the audition that had happened that day. I never looked at him with that perspective. He was just a friend and a director. I met all these directors looking to work in their films and not to become their girlfriend or to have an affair with them.

I wanted to take the legal route after I addressed my ordeal in the press conference, but I was intimidated by everybody and my family and friends told me that what I was setting out to do was wrong. I was told that I should not have called for a press conference and that they will finish my career. My voice was nipped in the bud so that others wouldn’t speak up. I was from a middle-class family and didn’t have the funds to go ahead and fight a legal battle. I was intimidated and then I backed out. In fact, I had never imagined that seven years after my ordeal, the #MeToo movement will start and that I will be talking about it all over again. This is nothing but karma. Dibakar has directed six films, even though I didn’t get any films after I went public with my allegations. I have my conscience to answer and he has his.”

BT reached out to director Dibakar Banerjee for his response, but he didn’t revert till the time we went to press. The director is currently working on the film, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar.

With the #MeToo movement gathering momentum, Payal Rohatgi urges YRF to relook into sexual misconduct allegations against Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar director Dibakar Banerjee
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 22, 2018)

Bollywood has exercised a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment allegations over the past few weeks, as several alleged offenders — including directors Sajid Khan and Subhash Kapoor — were dropped from their respective professional assignments. Actor Payal Rohatgi had accused director Dibakar Banerjee of sexual misconduct in 2011.

Rohatgi points out that despite her seven-year-old accusations against him, Banerjee has walked away unscathed and finds himself helming a prestigious project in Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar. "Dibakar did six films after that. He doesn't look like a villain, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he used his sob story of a bad marriage to make a move. I didn't file an FIR against him because I was intimidated. In the wake of #MeToo, I hope things will be different. I don't know if YRF [Yash Raj Films, producer of Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar] will take a stand. YRF knows about Dibakar," says Rohatgi.

For the uninitiated, the actor had alleged that Banerjee had tried to take advantage of her in lieu of offering a role in one of his upcoming movies. She claimed that he had asked her to "lift my shirt and show him my stomach." While she had called him out then, Rohatgi says she was punished by the industry for speaking up.

"I was working opposite actors like Irrfan and Paresh Rawal. But after I held the press conference, no one called me for an audition again. I stopped getting films. So I had to move to television. I kept myself alive with stage shows. It was a case of one brother backing another. According to Anurag [Kashyap], I was having an affair with Dibakar. But if I were hypothetically having an affair, that still doesn't make Dibakar right; he was married at that time," she fires back. Though empowered by the change in the industry, Rohatgi doesn't intend to pursue the matter anymore. "I don't want to put Sangram [Singh, fiance] and my family through the earlier turmoil. I have moved on."

mid-day reached out to Banerjee, but failed to receive a response.

Hiren Kotwani (DNA; September 30, 2018)

In the wake of Tanushree Dutta’s allegations that Nana Patekar reportedly ‘sexually harassed’ her during the shooting of Horn OK Pleassss in 2008, a number of celebrities like Kangana Ranaut, Farhan Akhtar, Sonam K Ahuja and Anurag Kashyap have come out in support of the Aashiq Banaya Aapne (2005) actress. Tanushree also revealed that filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri allegedly told her, ‘Jao jaake kapde utaar ke naacho’ during the shooting of Chocolate (2005).

After Hrs spoke to Payal Rohatgi, who had, in 2011, accused filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee of reportedly trying to take advantage of her in lieu of his then-upcoming film Shanghai, for which she had screen-tested.

Having worked and interacted with Tanushree in movies such as 36 China Town (2004) and Dhol (2007), Payal says, “As a woman, I want to believe her and want her story to be heard. It’s similar to my story when I spoke about a director’s inappropriate behaviour with me. But many people believed that since he’s a good filmmaker, he’s a good human being as well; forgetting that profession and work ethics are different from what one is as a person. Back then, directors like Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra called me mentally unstable. And, now, Anurag has spoken in support of Tanushree. However, when the name of director Vivek Agnihotri came up, I felt this was getting a political colour.”

Probe her further about ‘the political flavour comment’ and Payal states, “Feminism in India is very fake. People hold placards to protest against a rape allegedly in a ‘Devasthan’, but those same feminists don’t speak against the rape of a nun. Just because of the #MeToo movement in Hollywood, after Oscar-winning actresses including Angelina Jolie came out and spoke against Harvey Weinstein, we also want to talk about something that has been happening in Bollywood for long; like several years ago, Mamta Kulkarni had spoken against filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi.”

Recalling how she was shred to pieces when she had raised her voice against Dibakar, Payal says, “It did affect me, but I didn’t give up. I didn’t do films for a few years, instead, I took up reality shows. There are a lot of criteria when people want to support you and when they don’t want to. I fail to understand why the #MeToo campaign in India didn’t gain momentum when Malayalam actor Dileep was arrested after an actress was abducted and assaulted or when Telugu actress Sri Reddy was banned for talking about sexual harassment. These instances were more deserving of the #MeToo movement than anything else.”

Coming back to Tanushree’s allegations, Payal sums it, “We should be talking if an incident like this happens, but we should treat all such instances equally, not selectively.”