Actress Tanushree Dutta has accused actor Nana Patekar of alleged sexual harassment and intimidation on the sets of Horn OK Pleassss (2009) in 2008. However, in an interview to a daily later, the actress also claimed that director Vivek Agnihotri had asked her to strip on the sets of the film Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets (2005).
Sattyajit Gazmer, an associate director on the film, has rubbished Dutta’s claims, denying that Agnihotri ever made such a comment.
Gazmer put out a long post on Facebook, claiming the events were not at all how the actress has perceived. He has claimed to be the one who helped Dutta bag this film and said it was one of his assistants, and not Agnihotri, who asked Dutta to take off her bathrobe for the shoot.
According to him, the song in question, 'Bheega Bheega Sa December' was choreographed by Remo D’Souza and it also featured Suniel Shetty, Irrfan Khan Dutta, Arshad Warsi and Emran Hashmi.
On the set, the actress was in a bathrobe and under which she was wearing the particular dress for the song. In his post, Gazmer explained that Dutta was asked to remove the bathrobe and not strip.
“In this particular shot there was one camera directly on Irrfan [Khan] bhai’s close and the jimmy Jib camera was on Tanushree’s back which was supposed to move, leave her and go on Irfan Bhai’s close. When we called Tanushree she did her rehearsals in the bathrobe. When the dance director Remo got ready for the shot one of my assistants asked her to take off the bathrobe,” Gazmer wrote.
He further added that the actress could not understand that she was required to remove the robe for continuity purposes: "She asked why should she if it’s Irrfan’s close-up. The assistant tried to explain to her but she didn’t understand that she was in OS (Over the shoulder) shot of another camera. Then I was called and I explained to her. She didn’t understand that in multiple camera set up the main camera can be on someone’s close but other cameras were shooting her. I asked to take off her bathrobe and shoot in film costume which she was anyways wearing under the bathrobe. It’s a pink colour dress which anyone can check on YouTube."
The editor-associate director also pointed out that the song was being shot in front of 200 people and it was impossible for Agnihotri or any one to ask Dutta to strip, especially since Agnihotri's wife, Pallavi Joshi, was also present on the set.
“How is it possible to harass or behave badly when her manager Bhola was present there? Don’t these media people have any common sense? Pallavi ji was also present on the set who had come only to give confidence to Tanushree. Use your commonsense and tell me is it possible to ask a heroine to strip in front of so many people and specially director’s wife and Tanushree’s own manager and other 200 people being present on the sets? Hey Media, are you dumb or stupid or just nasty?" Gazmer questioned.
Further, Gazmer came down hard on the media for not verifying the facts and said he is wiling to sit face-to-face with Dutta and give a minute by minute account of what happened. "In this case, I don’t know what is the ultimate purpose of Tanushree but if she wants I am willing to sit face to face with her and repeat minute by minute account with her for media to check. But I must tell all my friends that our media is the worst in the world. It has put a blemish on the film industry, director and the entire honest team without even once caring to confirm. I stand with women and #MeToo but please don’t run a media mafia for your own agenda and destroy credibilities of good people for your own selfish political agenda.”
Cinestaan.com contacted Gazmer for further clarification, but he refused to add anything more. “As I said and informed you whatever happened I mentioned [in the facebook post]. Digging in more will hurt you or rather me in the bargain,” he replied.
Read Gazmer 's full post below: