Yesterday, director Sajid Khan stepped down from Housefull 4 after three women, included assistant director Saloni Chopra, actress Rachel White and journalist Karishma Upadhyay, accused of him sexual harassment in their dealings with him.
Later actresses Esha Gupta and Bipasha Basu both spoke out in support of the survivors and the #MeToo movement in India.
Back in 2014, Basu had told India Today, a magazine, about her experience on the sets of Humshakals (2014), "It's been the most humiliating experience of my life. It's really humiliating to be on a set like that. I have nothing against the film. I've not seen the film. I don't know the story of the film. I just know I had a six-minute role. I knew I was there on time every day. I would be kept late on the set sometimes without doing any shots. I never said a word. I finished my dubbing obediently. I did everything that I was told to do except promote the film."
Basu stayed away from the promotions of the crude comedy film, starring Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh, which later flopped.
The actress reiterated her stance on Khan in an interview with Indian Express, a daily, "I am glad that women are speaking up about the atrocities of these men with power and clout. It was just his general attitude towards women that would disturb me. He cracked lewd jokes openly and was pretty rude to all girls. [Though he] never ever did the same with me. I had sworn never to work in a humiliating environment for women ever again after Humshakals. Everyone knows I dissociated from the film for exactly this reason. I made it loud and clear."
Basu will next be seen in Bhushan Patel's Aadat (2019) as a London police officer with her husband Karan Singh Grover as co-star. The film is written by Vikram Bhatt.