NewDelhi: Popular casting director Mukesh Chhabra has been suspended as the director of ‘Kizie Aur Manny’ following the sexual harassment charges against him. The MeToo movement has gained momentum in Bollywood after Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual harrasment. The actress alleged that Patekar had sexually harrased her on the sets of Hork ok Please in the year 2008. Since then, many celebrities including Vikas Bahl, Alok Nath and Sajid Khan have been accused of sexual harrasment.
‘Kizie Aur Manny’ was supposed to be Chhabra’s directorial debut. On Friday, Fox Stars Studios suspended Chhabra via a Twitter post.
The official Twitter handle of Fox Star Hindi issued a statement which reads, “As a responsible organisation, Star India takes any allegation of sexual harassment of women at workplace very seriously. Hence, Fox Star Studios has suspended the services of Mukesh Chhabra, director of our film `Kizie Aur Manny`, which is under production, till the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of M/s Mukesh Chhabra Casting Company concludes its inquiry into the allegations against him,”
Chhabra, however had earlier denied the ‘unsubstantiated wild anonymous allegations’ through a letter posted on his Twitter account.
“It is very unfortunate that years of hard work and building is been muzzled with a series of unsubstantiated wild anonymous allegations. To put it into perspective, we have a ICC committee put into the place for years and we could have appreciated if the complaint received could have been forwarded to the said committee for probe and investigation,” the letter read.
‘Kizie Aur Manny’ is the Hindi remake of Hollywood movie ‘The Fault in Our Stars’. It features Sushant Singh Rajput and newcomer Sanjana Sanghi in the lead roles.
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