Mumbai: Days after Tanushree Dutta claimed that Bollywood actor Nana Patekar harassed her on the sets of a film, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi stood in support of the actor.
In a recent interaction with media, Gandhi said, “harassment of any kind will not be tolerated.”
Talking about how India also needs a movement like #MeToo, the Union Minister said “I feel we should also start something called ‘Me Too India’ in which any woman who has been harassed at any point should write to us and we should investigate. For the first time, the National Commission for Women is going into every case that is complained to us. We go in detail and literally, we have solved several thousand cases.”
Dutta recently alleged that Patekar misbehaved with her on the sets of the film ‘Horn Ok Pleasss’. She had accused Patekar of harassing her while shooting for a special dance number in the movie, and also accused dance choreographer Ganesh Acharya of teaming up against her.
The ‘Aashiq Banaya Aapne’ actor further said that she and her family were attacked after she refused to perform the intimate step.
Many Bollywood celebrities have voiced their support for the actor including Priyanka Chopra, Parineeti Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhaskar, Shilpa Shetty, Kalki Koechlin, and Sonam Kapoor Ahuja.
Meanwhile, Patekar’s lawyer reportedly sent a legal notice to Dutta, demanding a written apology from her for ruining his image.
‘Me Too’ is a viral movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault that started in 2017, it started as a social media movement in order to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment. It also covers various topics like gender, parity, sexual harassment, especially in the workplace.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]