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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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News Network
March 11,2020

Mar 11: The shooting of Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai has been completed, and the film will now release on schedule.

If one recalls, the film went on the floors in the first week of November 2019 and was supposed to be Salman’s fastest completed film. However, the movie faced a variety of roadblocks — It was first to be wrapped in the first week of February, “But Salman went off to his Panvel farmhouse after the release of Dabangg 3 and spent a while there ushering in his birthday,” a source reveals.

“Then, the extension of the show Bigg Boss 13 by five weeks also turned out to be another speed breaker. Then, Salman wanted to make sure that the film was being made as good as what his audiences wanted on Eid. He made sure that his director Prabhudeva got what he wanted from the performers and didn’t want to rush him.

"Additionally, the Azerbaijan schedule of the film also got cancelled as Salman did not want to take any chances with the cast and crew with the lurking Covid 19, and rescheduled the shoot in India. This is now complete, barring any patchwork that might emerge later,” our source adds.

Radhe is slated to be an Eid release, which will clash with Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb.

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News Network
June 19,2020

Mumbai, Jun 19: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s memories will continue to be celebrated as Instagram has memorialised his account, adding “remembering” to his bio.

Rajput, 34, known for films like "Kai Po Che!", "MS Dhoni: The Untold Story", "Chhichhore", was found dead in his Bandra apartment on Sunday, sending shockwaves in the film industry and elsewhere.

Days after his untimely demise, Instagram added “remembering” to his account bio and memorialised it as a place to remember the actor’s life.

According to the photo-video sharing website, no one can log into a memorialised account. The posts the deceased person shared, including photos and videos, stay on their page and are visible to the users they were shared with.

Also, once the account is memorialised, no one will be able to make changes to any of the existing posts or information.

The actor’s last post on the social media platform was a tribute to his late mother on June 3.

Rajput’s death is being investigated by the Mumbai Police and so far statements of over 13 people, including actor’s family members and close friends, including actor Rhea Chakraborty and casting director Mukesh Chhabra, have been recorded.

The police have also sent a letter to Yash Raj Films seeking details of the contracts it had signed with him.

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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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