MAMI 2018: AIB's Chintu Ka Birthday, Rajat Kapoor's Kadakh dropped from line-up

The 20th Mumbai Film Festival has taken the step of dropping two films, All India Bakchod's Chintu Ka Birthday and Rajat Kapoor's Kadakh, from their India Story section. The festival put out a statement late last night to address allegations against the producers of Chintu Ka Birthday and the director of Kadakh and address their support for the #MeToo movement in the industry.

On Monday, the festival also postponed their scheduled press conference. Festival director Anupama Chopra said, "The Mumbai Film Festival is fully supportive of the #MeToo movement. We have postponed the press conference because now is not the time to focus on our line-up which is what we were going to announce. There is a larger issue at play and as an Academy we will put our attention and weight behind all efforts to find concrete ways to address this deep-seated and pernicious problem."

Afterwards, the announcement to drop Chintu Ka Birthday and Kadakh was made. AIB's founder Tanmay Bhat is stepping down from the comedy collective after it emerged that he was aware of the numerous allegations against comedian Utsav Chakraborty and didn't take action against him. Co-founder Gursimran Khamba is also on a temporary leave of absence as there are allegations of sexual harassment in 2015 and 2016 against him by an anonymous woman.

Digital platform Hotstar has also dropped the third season of On Air With AIB.

Khamba acknowledged his bad behaviour, but insisted their relationship in 2015 was consensual.

Director Rajat Kapoor, too, was accused separately of inappropriate behaviour by a journalist and an assistant. The actor-filmmaker put out an apology on Twitter soon after.

The 20th edition of the festival is being held from 25 October to 1 November 2018.