A young woman working with Phantom Films, of which the founders include Anurag Kashyap, Madhu Mantena, Vikramaditya Motwane, and Vikas Bahl, has accused ‘Queen’ director Vikas of sexual harassment. The incident, as reported in a leading tabloid, happened a few months ago during a trip to Goa.
The tabloid further reports that after the girl filed a complaint to the other stakeholders – Anurag, Vikramaditya and Madhu, the matter was then escalated to Reliance Entertainment who have a 50-50 percent stake in the joint venture. With all seriousness of the matter, a committee has been set up as per the Vishakha guidelines to hear the complaint. Until the, the filmmaker is ousted from the company he founded with the four others in 2011.
Talking to the tabloid, one of the stakeholders on condition of anonymity, revealed, “We (Reliance Entertainment and Phantom Films) have taken a hard stand, based on what we have heard and investigated.” According to him and several others close to the development, Vikas Bahl, who had already stopped attending office, was formally told on March 28 to step down from his position.”
The stakeholder further added, “The decision needed to be taken because it was getting too much,” said the stakeholder. “There are not one, two or three but multiple victims. I was in the middle of a film shoot when I came to know about the first incident and I had to stop my shoot and come to Mumbai… there is (after all) a young girl on whom an intoxicated Vikas forced himself while they were in Goa. He has behaved badly in the past as well but when this specific complaint came, we needed to act on it.”
Contrary to the reports, Vikas, who is currently in Delhi besides his ailing mother, took his stand and said, “Nothing has happened. I am running the company. There is no complaint to HR and there is no Vishakha committee. I have heard about this particular lady you are speaking about and the Goa incident. She is not my employee. Yes, I am friends with her, we have worked together and there is a production job we have done together…but if she is feeling like this I would like to sit across a table from her and talk to her. I want to ask her if I have crossed a line, whether I have done anything to hurt her and if she feels that way I would like to apologise for it. I have known her for long. For two-and-half years, she has never made me feel as if she is uncomfortable (around me). I have worked very hard to be the person I have become. I do feel a little victimised but I don’t know what to do about that.”
Further adding on that there is nothing for him to hide, Bahl added, “People really like me. I don’t know why anyone would stoop to this level.”
Talking about Phantom films, Vikas said, “Phantom Films is like my family. I gave up a huge job to start this company. My shares in Phantom are equal to the others. We are equal partners and best friends. If you have followed (the US sitcom) ‘FRIENDS’, you will know that after the first season of the show Ross had become the most popular guy and the makers of the show hiked his fee three times over. He went and told the producers if you are doing it for me you have to do it for the others too. And that was our learning. We will always be equal partners. It doesn’t matter whose movie does well and whose doesn’t. We will always be equal partners.”
Credits: Mumbai Mirror
