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#MeToo: Bollywood comes out in support of Tanushree Dutta

Agencies
September 28, 2018

Mumbai, Sept 28: Actor Tanushree Dutta has finally found support in her Bollywood colleagues with many of them admiring her for her courage, two days after she alleged that Nana Patekar harassed her on the sets of a film in 2008.

In a recent TV interview, Dutta had said Patekar misbehaved with her on the sets of "Horn Ok Pleasss" 10 years ago. The actor also alleged that Patekar had the tacit support of the film's makers.

In a lengthy Twitter post, journalist Janice Sequeira narrated her account of the incident, provoking many from the Hindi film industry to react to Tanushree's allegations.

"This thread is very telling. @janiceseq85 was there at the time of the incident being debated today," Farhan Akhtar wrote late Thursday along side Sequeira's account of the incident.

"Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not and her story hasn't changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned," he added.

"Agreed... The world needs to #BelieveSurviviors," Priyanka Chopra commented on Farhan's post on Friday.

Parineeti Chopra said, "I agree too. Survivors are survivors because they have dealt with something horrible and come out on the other side. So believe them, respect them."

Sonam K Ahuja said it was important for the industry to come together to support the victims and encourage them.

"Many of my co-workers,female and male have been harassed and bullied, but it’s their story to tell. If we don't encourage their voices and instead vilify and question them, how will victims ever become survivors? Let them speak up! Stand up with them," she tweeted.

Konkona Sen Sharma tweeted, "We all know the reality of the power imbalance that exists in the workplace. Let us encourage these voices instead of shaming them so that others may have the strength to come forward."

Sharing Sequeira's post director Anurag Kashyap said people should stop questioning the victim.

"This should stop the questioning of intention of Tanushree Datta because there is a witness account of what happened and @janiceseq85 is as credible as the come... This should stop the speculation about the intention of the survivor," he wrote.

Richa Chadha praised Dutta for being courageous enough to open up about the harassment she faced during her time in the films.

"It hurts to be #TanushreeDutta. To be alone, questioned. No woman wants publicity that opens the floodgates of trolling and insensitivity.What happened to her on set was intimidation. Her only fault was she didn't back down-takes a special courage to be #TanushreeDutta" she wrote.

Twinkle Khanna said a healthy working environment is a fundamental right.

"Please read this thread before judging or shaming #TanushreeDutta a working environment without harassment and intimidation is a fundamental right and by speaking up this brave woman helps pave the way towards that very goal for all of us," she wrote.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta said he was proud of Tanushree but was "cynical" about the results.

"Will this also die a natural death with no formal complaint, no proper investigation and no punitive action against the predator if he is found guilty? Honestly, I am cynical about the outcome. These offenders go scot free because our outrage is short-lived. #TanushreeDutta

"We must stop asking 'what did you about it then' and start asking 'what can we do about it now'. It's now or never," he wrote.

Actor Kunal Kapoor said, "Whether it's a man or a woman, just because someone is good at their work or charitable, doesn't mean they aren't capable of harassment."

Stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, however, evaded a direct answer when asked about Dutta's claim.

"My name is not Tanushree and my name is not Nana Patekar," Bachchan said when asked to react to Dutta's recent TV interview.

Aamir said it would be unfair on his part to comment on the controversy without knowing the "veracity" or the "details" of the matter.

"I don't think I can comment on it... But whenever something like this does happens it is really a sad thing. Now whether such thing has happened it is for people to investigate it," he said.

Salman dodged the question saying he was not aware about the incident.

"I am not aware of this dear let me know, let me understand what is happening. We will see. What is going on as I am not aware of what you are talking," he said.

Taking a sly dig at Bachchan, writer Varun Grover tweeted, "Neither I am #TanushreeDutta nor #NanaPatekar but even a cursory knowledge of gender-based power-dynamics and ugliness of male behaviour in this world should inform us that she's telling the truth. Telling your stories is the way things will change."

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Agencies
August 4,2020

New Delhi, Aug 4: Almost two months after the demise of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, actor Preity Zinta on Tuesday watched his last film 'Dil Bechara' for the second time and said it was an 'emotional roller coaster'.

The 'Kal Ho Na Ho' actor shared a picture of one of the scenes from the film on Instagram and thanked film director Mukesh Chhabra for doing justice to the 'Kai Po Che!' actor's last film.

"Saw #Dilbechara again Thank you @castingchhabra for doing full justice to Sushant's last movie," she wrote in the caption.
"It was surreal, a tearjerker and an emotional roller coaster all the way," she added.

She also praised Sushant's co-actor Sanjana Sanghi for doing a "fab job" in the film which happens to be her debut flick.

"@sanjanasanghi96 U and the rest of the cast did a fab job. Congratulations to all of you. #Bittersweet #MissU," the 45-year-old actor further wrote.

Produced by Fox Star Studios, 'Dil Bechara' has been adapted from the famous John Green novel 'The Fault In Our Stars.'

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai's Bandra residence on June 14.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: On his 47th birthday on Thursday, actor Sonu Sood announced three lakh jobs for migrant labourers on the job portal 'Pravasi Rojgar' that he had launched earlier this month.

The 'Dabangg' actor who has launched several initiatives for helping migrant labourers of the country made the announcement about the additional three lakh jobs on his Instagram account.

Sood posted two flyers of the employment application and shared that the jobs came with additional benefits like PF and ESI.

"On my birthday a small initiative from my side...3 lakh jobs tied up for Pravasirojgar.com. All these will provide good wages, PF, ESI, and other benefits," he wrote in the caption.

He further went on to thank the organisations that had partnered with him for the initiative.
"Thank you AEPC, CITI, Trident, Quesscorp, Amazon, Sodex, Urban Co, Portea, and all others for creating these opportunities with me. #AbIndiaBanegaKamyaab @pravasirojgar," he wrote.

Hailed as the 'messiah' of migrant labourers, Sood has helped hundreds of thousands of migrants to reach their native places amid the coronavirus induced lockdown when many like them were walking back to their homes.

Besides labourers, he has also helped students and other people stranded in different parts of the country amid the lockdown. 

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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