Mumbai: T-series owner Bhushan Kumar has been accused of sexual harassment by a woman who works in his company. The woman, who has registered a complaint against him at Mumbai’s Oshiwara police station, claimed that Kumar exploited her sexually on the pretext of getting her work.
The woman said that she met Bhushan at the premiere of ‘Bhoomi’ in 2017 where the two exchanged numbers with each other.
It is to be noted that this is the second incident when Kumar has been called out for sexual harassment.
Earlier in October, an unnamed woman claimed on Twitter that Kumar had called her to a bungalow for a three-film deal and threatened to destroy her career if she refused. “I was new and I was scared, very scared!! The next day i got to know that i was dropped from the film bcoz i had refused to sleep with the ‘boss’, said the anonymous account.
Kumar, however, denied the allegations in a statement issued to PTI, which read, “I am appalled and anguished to know that my name has been dragged in this metoo by some anonymous person(s). The allegations against me are bad on the face of it. I have enjoyed an impeccable reputation and have always maintained professionalism. The tweet has been used as a tool to defame me and malign my reputation. I have taken this allegation very seriously and lodging a complaint with the cyber cell of the Mumbai Police to track the mysterious people(s) whose twitter handles have disappeared within seconds of uploading the malicious tweet. I’ll take all such actions as I will be legally advised.”
As part of India’s MeToo movement, a number of celebrities have been called out as sexual predators.
Last year, T-Series had dropped Subhash Kapoor as the director of its upcoming project ‘Mogul’ after an old molestation allegation, levelled by actor Girtika Tyagi, resurfaced. It was reported that in the wake of sexual allegations against Kapoor, Aamir Khan opted out of ‘Mogul’.
Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series has produced ‘Why Cheat India’ and ‘Bharat’ which will be releasing this year. The company will also be producing the third installment of ‘ABCD’.
Many big names from the industry, such as Nana Patekar, Alok Nath, Vikas Bahl, Kailash Kher, Sajid Khan stand accused of harassment.
Recently, ‘3 Idiots’ filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who worked with him on his 2017 film ‘Sanju’. In an article on HuffPost India, the woman, who calls herself as “an assistant”, alleged that Hirani sexually abused her more than once between March and September 2018.
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