Vikas Bahl cleared of sexual harassment charge, will be credited as director of Hrithik Roshan’s Super 30
Director Vikas Bahl, who was accused of sexual harassment by an ex-employee of Phantom Films during the MeToo movement last year, has been given a clean chit by Reliance Entertainment’s internal committee looking into the matter.
bollywood Updated: Jun 01, 2019 13:01 ISTDirector Vikas Bahl, known for his National Award-winning film Queen, was among the many big names from Bollywood to be accused of sexual misconduct last year as part of the MeToo campaign. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, the director has been cleared of sexual harassment charge.
The report says that an internal enquiry committee instituted by Reliance Entertainment, a company which had 50% stake in Phantom Films, has given Vikas a clean chit. They are also one of the producers of Hrithik Roshan’s Super 30.
Shibasish Sarkar of Reliance Entertainment was quoted in as saying: “Yes, it is that the internal complaints committee report has exonerated Vikas Bahl. With the committee clearing Vikas, we don’t have a choice but to reinstate his credit as director of Super 30.”
In 2015, a female employee at Phantom Films, which had Vikas as one of the partners along side Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena, had levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Vikas. She had said that he had behaved inappropriately during a trip to Goa. In the wake of the Me Too movement, the woman reiterated her claims and had written about it in Huffington Post last year. After the allegations came out in public, Phantom Films was dissolved and Vikas’s name was dropped from the credits of Super 30. Anurag Kashyap volunteered to complete the post-production work on Super 30, though it was decided that there would be no name for the director on the film’s credit rolls.
The Mumbai Mirror report also states that Vikas’ name will appear in the trailer (due to release next week) of the film too. Vikas has already filed defamation charges against directors Anurag and Vikramaditya Motwane for their comments on his alleged sexual misconduct, the tabloid added.
Vikas, alongwith other big names such as Anu Malik, Rajkumar Hirani, Alok Nath, Nana Patekar and Sajid Khan among others, were accused of sexual misconduct during the MeToo campaign that swept Bollywood last year.
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First Published: Jun 01, 2019 12:58 IST