A female junior artist was allegedly molested near the sets of Housefull 4 on Thursday night and has filed an FIR. Talking to ANI, the woman said that she was sitting with a colleague on the sets of the movie when two men, Pawan Shetty and Sagar -- arrived with some others and started misbehaving with her male friend. When she tried to intervene, they touched her inappropriately, the woman claimed.

“I was sitting with a colleague when suddenly two men, Pawan Shetty and Sagar, with four others came and tried to take away my colleague forcefully. When I tried to stop them, Shetty started pushing me and touched me inappropriately,” the junior artist said.

Mumbai: A female junior artist was allegedly molested by a man, who was among six men who were manhandling another junior artist, at the sets of film Housefull 4 at Chitrakoot studio, last night. FIR has been registered.

— ANI (@ANI) October 26, 2018

“When I started screaming, the production people and actors Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh, came outside. They only gave us the idea that we should call the police. The accused men ran away when they saw the production people and others,” she added. A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered.

However, executive producer of Housefull 4, Manoj Mitra said that the incident happened off the sets when the stars had already left. “It is disheartening to hear about this incident. As an executive producer, I would like to clarify that the recent incident that showed up in the news related to the sets of Housefull 4, is something that evidently didn’t happen on the sets or during the shoot; it took place off the sets and hence I have to state that it is beyond our capabilities. I would also like to clarify that Akshay Kumar and Ritiesh Deshmukh had packed up way before this incident occurred. It was their personal matter and nothing related to our film shoot,” the statement said.

First Published: Oct 26, 2018 13:33 IST