Image Source : INSTAGRAM Bollywood Tanushree Dutta harassment row: New video of actress' car being vandalised goes viral Tanushree Dutta is all over the news ever since she spoke out about the sexual harassment she faced in the hands of veteran actor Nana Patekar. According to the Aashiq Banaya Aapne actress, the actor touched her inappropriately while filming for an item song for the film Horn OK Please. She even alleged that the choreographer Ganesh Acharya and the director of the film didn’t intervene when the misbehaviour was happening on the sets. Her car was vandalised the video of which went viral on the internet recently. Many Bollywood celebrities have come forward in support of Tanushree Dutta including Twinkle Khanna, Priyanka Chopra, Varun Dhawan, Farhan Akhtar among others. However, so far, Nana Patekar has refused any of Tanushree’s allegations. He even told media that he will slap a legal case against her. As told by the actress, she hasn’t received any legal notice from Patekar’s side as yet. Talking about the place where it all started- Horn OK Please, Tanushree Dutta was replaced by controversial actress Rakhi Sawant for the song. Amid these controversies, did you ever feel the urge to watch the video of the song that started all the controversy? If yes, we have the video for you. In the song, Nana Patekar can be seen shaking legs with Muzammil Ibrahim in a bar. Rakhi Sawant is also seen grooving with the two men. When the entire nation is discussing Tanushree Dutta and her allegations about Nana Patekar, Rakhi Sawant offered her two cents to the matter. She said that the actress is just trying to malign the image of such a great actor like Nana Patekar. She even challenged Dutta to confront her.<doc-sep>Last week was an explosive one for Bollywood. Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta returned to India from the US, and accused Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of Horn Ok Pleasss in 2008. She said that Nana had tried to get too close to her during the filming of a special number in the song and had insisted on teaching her the steps, even though choreographer Ganesh Acharya was present on the scene. Tanushree said that when she protested against it, Nana called the media and goons from the MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena), who came and bashed up her car and broke her windshield. The MNS has now hit out at Tanushree. The incident involving Nana and Tanushree had made headlines in 2008. In fact, Tanushree had even complained to CINTAA (the Cine and TV Artists Association) at the time, who 'did not address the issue properly'. A video of the incident went viral over the past week. In the video, Tanushree's car is seen being attacked by goons and while the actress maintains that these people were called by the producers, contradictory versions of the incident have begun doing the rounds on social media. In her recent statement, Tanushree said that Nana Patekar, choreographer Ganesh Acharya, director Rakesh Sarang and producer Sami Siddiqui were fabricating lies that the attack was an altercation between her and the media. "It was a lie to cover up and justify the heinous nature of the attack. That lie is still being perpetrated. Do not fall for that and get distracted. I urge everyone to find old footage from archives and go through them. Also MNS is not just a party but an ideology like Al-Qaeda or ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), they are a violent disruptive communal, intolerant ideology and anyone from any profession can pledge allegiance to it," Tanushree said in her statement on Monday evening. Along with legal threats from Nana, Tanushree says she has also been battling threats from the MNS. She also claims that Raj Thackeray, chief of the MNS party, threatened her with a violent attack in an interview to a daily. However, the Mumbai police has been supportive and promised protection to her. "Amid all this, the Mumbai Police has reached out [to me] and offered their support.They have promised me 24-hour police protection and have posted their armed personnel around my home. I would like to thank the Mumbai police force for coming forward to protect me and helping me strengthen my resolve," she said. MNS member Ameya Khopkar on Tuesday (October 2) rubbished Tanushree's accusations and said in an exclusive interview to India Today Television, "I had shared a clip of the incident where her car was attacked. In that clip, you can see that a few media representatives attacked her car after she had some argument with them. No MNS worker or leader can been seen because we were never there." He added, "We did not want to react to her allegations, but she levelled attacks on Raj Thackeray, and thus we are reacting now. All her allegations against my party are baseless. Why did Tanushree remain silent for 10 years?" Khopkar asserted, "MNS is a party that has always stood for the film industry people. MNS ran campaigns against Pakistani artists so that Indian artists get jobs and assignments. MNS will not tolerate such baseless allegations. If she is thinking of entering Big Boss (reality show) by leveling such allegations against MNS and [its] chief Raj Thackeray, then we will not allow Big Boss to run. We are not sending any legal notice to Tanushree as we don't want to help her in getting publicity." While Tanushree has received support from actors like Sonam Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhasker and a few others, bigwigs like Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan have steered clear of the issue. ALSO READ: Tanushree Dutta alleges Vivek Agnihotri had told her 'kapde utaar ke naacho'<doc-sep>Writer Shyni Shetty, who was an assistant director on the film Horn Ok Pleassss, elaborates on exactly what happened between Tanushree Dutta and Nana Patekar that day 10 years ago. (Editor's note: Writer Shyni Shetty, who was an assistant director on the film Horn Ok Pleassss, tweeted about the incident involving Tanushree Dutta and Nana Patekar, where the former accused the latter of sexually harassing her during the making of an item song. In this personal account, Shetty elaborates on exactly what happened that day 10 years ago.) The incident Horn Ok Pleassss was my first film as an assistant director. We were shooting an item song on set in Filmistan Studios and the shoot had not begun since there was a bit of artwork pending. We had been rehearsing for the song the previous day. Since it was my first time as an AD, I was on set trying to make sure everything was in place. Typically what an AD does — making sure the costumes, the props are in place and that everyone is on time. While the rehearsals were going on that day, I could see that Tanushree was very uncomfortable. She was uncomfortable with the steps and the way the song was being rehearsed. Ofcourse, she didn't scream and shout on set, she went to her vanity van very quietly. Post that there was a whole phase of lots of people going in and out of her vanity van. As an AD, I didn't really know what happened. There were murmurs that she's not cooperating — but we didn't know what about. Soon she came back on set and we thought, okay, now the shoot will resume. But in less than half an hour she stormed out of the set, went back into her vanity van and shut her door. By this time we were convinced something had happened. Since this was my first film, I was still very enamored with how things function. Also, I was an eager worker, all about the continuity, and notes, and this and that. So I wasn't one of those people who was a part of the discussions that were happening on set about the incident. What I did see is that she stormed out of the set and the men (director, producer, choreographer) were discussing something very seriously. Next thing I know, Tanushree's parents were on set and she walked out of the vanity van in her regular clothes, and got into her a car — I think it was a black luxury car. We didn't even realise how and when, but there was a mob on set by this time. There were many people talking in Marathi but I couldn't tell if the mob was from MNS. This was my second year in Mumbai, so I couldn't tell. Some people on the set knew Marathi so they were trying to talk to her, and pacify her but she was unwilling. As she tried to leave the set, there was a mob going crazy and they broke the window of her car. She was stuck there for 15-20 minutes unable to do anything. Finally she left. I didn't personally see Tanushree talk to anyone about the incident but that's because I was not inside her vanity van. There were many people going in and out of her vanity van, so I'm guessing discussions were happening. You could tell from her face she was uncomfortable. Post this incident we didn't shoot for two days, and then we had Rakhi Sawant step in. The first two days that Rakhi shot for the song we had a lot of press on the set, since this had already become a bit of a controversy. It was a sensationalised piece of news. I also wasn't there when Nana said that Tanushree is like his daughter and he would never do such a thing. So I can't confirm that happened. 'Nana Patekar was sweet to me' This was my first film, and Nana was very sweet to me and was very helpful. Before I came on board the film, I heard all these stories about how he has a temper and how he's very difficult to handle, but he was very nice to me. He told me where to give the clap, when the lens was wide, and things like that. My director, choreographer and first AD were also very helpful. Nobody ever made a pass at me. But does that absolve them of what happened with Tanushree? No. We are seeing this in Hollywood pretty much every single day. Whether it's Bill Cosby or Louis CK — these are all great artistes. But does that absolve them of what they did? If Tanushree walked out of the sets twice it is obvious that something happened that upset her. I remember clearly seeing how uncomfortable she was. I didn't get to speak to her about it, but these were my observations. I didn't have the kind of access to actors that I could go into their vanity and ask what happened. We had chatted on set but not about the incident. And I never worked with her post this. 'Claim that she's doing this for publicity makes no sense' This incident happened 10 years ago and the reportage of it was very misogynistic, but I feel not much has changed today either. When I tweeted about it, lots of people commented saying she's got 200 followers today, tomorrow it will be 1000. She's doing this for publicity. But if I wanted 1000 followers, there are many other things I could have tweeted about. This doesn't bother me because I'm not a celebrity. I know a lot of celebrity friends who have to deal with a lot of vitriol and damning statements that make no sense. Even people who say — okay, two people have spoken up, what about the other side of the story? But there's always been the other side of the story. People have said Tanushree's doing this for publicity. But that makes no sense. She wasn't even the main lead in the film. She was merely doing an item number. If she wanted publicity, she would have quietly done the song. Then chances of her getting a full fledged role would be higher. As opposed to being considered difficult. But she didn't do that. Also, if she was doing all this for publicity, she would have called the mob. She would have called the press. But she didn't. She was in her vanity van and before we knew it, Filmistan was filled with a mob. Nobody knows who called them. Should bollywood be silent? I think it's each to their own. I know industry people who are very diplomatic and this issue is very layered. For me personally it just felt right to say that I saw this happen. To be very frank, tomorrow if I were working with Nana Patekar or directing a 100 crore film — would I tweet about this? I don't know. I might have sleepless nights about it but I may have to consider so many other things. So when an Aamir or Amitabh don't comment, yes, I do feel bad. But just because I spoke I don't expect everyone else to speak about it. Maybe these celebrities do have a stand but they just don't want to talk about it. I felt speaking out about this was the right thing to do. Shyni Shetty has written web shows for Zoom and is currently working on a bunch ideas for film and TV series. **** Also read: Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhasker rally around Tanushree Dutta after harassment revelations Nana Patekar denies sexual harassment allegations by Tanushree Dutta: Will see what I can do legally Tanushree Dutta is brave — Let's not muzzle her by giving in to Bollywood’s inherent patriarchy<doc-sep>
Tanushree Dutta claimed that she was at the receiving end of Nana Patekar's unwanted advances while shooting for a special song for Horn Ok Pleassss. Tanushree Dutta shocked the country with her allegations that Nana Patekar sexually harassed her on the sets of Horn Ok Pleassss during the shoot of a special number. In an interview with India Today Television, Tanushree said that though the song was initially a solo sequence featuring just her, Nana was "lurking" on the sets on the day of the shoot despite not being a part of it. "He started literally grabbing me by the arm and pushing me around. He told the choreographers to stay away and began teaching me the dance steps," she narrated. Tanushree said that she discussed Nana's unwanted advances with director Rakesh Sarang and producer Samee Siddiqui. However, they did not pay heed to her complaint, and informed her shortly afterwards that there was a change and that she would now perform a "sexy dance" with Nana. At this point, the actress decided to walk out of the film. Rakhi Sawant was eventually brought in as her replacement. However, director Rakesh Sarang has a different story to tell. He told a leading daily that Tanushree is "probably creating a controversy because she may want to make a comeback" and that she should "move ahead". The filmmaker said, "Tanushree is saying that Nathni Utaro [the title of the song] was a solo dance that she rehearsed for. In that case, she must have heard the song during the rehearsals itself. Why doesn't she remember that the song had a male voice too? It was always supposed to be a duet song." Rakesh also claimed that Tanushree misread the whole situation. "He was shooting for a song after many years, so he was excited about it. She misjudged everything, including his encouragement. See, if your boss wants to flirt with you, he won't do it in a public area; he will invite you to his cabin. There were around 400 people on the set that day. Will anybody take advantage in front of 400 people?" he questioned. ALSO READ | Nana Patekar could not have sexually harassed Tanushree Dutta, says Ganesh Acharya