Apology from Sajid Khan not enough, he has to face consequences: Cousin Farhan Akhtar

Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar was vocal against his cousin, filmmaker Sajid Khan, who has been accused of sexual harassment and misconduct by multiple women in Hindi cinema's #MeToo movement.

During an event called We The Women, he spoke about the matter and the movement in detail and said he felt guilty for not knowing about his cousin's misconduct.

“It was surprise, disappointment and strange, because when it's a member of your family, you also feel a certain level of guilt. It's happened to all of us in the past when we hear something like this and say 'but how come someone so close to him didn't know'. The truth is I didn't. If I did know, I would've spoken about it way before the story broke. There was this certain guilt about that, how could this be going on and I had no idea. So there were conflicted emotions," he said.

Akhtar also revealed that three of his female friends spoke to him privately about Khan’s behaviour towards them. "There were two-three women who got in touch with me privately to say 'listen you should know whatever is being said is true and he has behaved in a similar way with us as well'," he said. “These are the people I've known for 12, 15, 20 years and meet them very often but nobody ever mentioned this to me. I asked them why didn't you ever tell me?”

Akhtar also said that he wanted to speak with Khan on the matter when it first came to light. "So pretty much on the first day when three women came out and spoke, I felt it was important for me to speak out. Sajid, being my brother, I need to now work with him, try to figure out how he can see this thing through and how it is that he can make the women who have been affected by his actions, somehow feel better."

He also agreed with journalist Barkha Dutt that a mere apology is not enough. "Absolutely. Whether stuff like this needs to go into the ambit of court and is for them to decide. These are the things he [Sajid Khan] has to face," he added.

Multiple women accused Khan of sexual harassment Khan while he was directing Housefull 4. He had to step down from the project and was replaced by Farhad Samji.