Filmmaker Hirani dragged in #MeToo, he denies charge

Mumbai, January 13

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who worked with him on his film “Sanju”. Hirani has categorically denied the allegations. His lawyer Anand Desai termed the allegations as “false, mischievous, scandalous, motivated and defamatory”.

In an article in HuffPost India, the woman, who calls herself as “an assistant”, alleged that Hirani sexually abused her more than once between March and September 2018. She detailed her allegations in an email dated November 3, 2018, to Hirani’s long-time collaborator and “Sanju” co-producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

The woman said on April 9, 2018, the director first passed a sexually suggestive remark and later sexually assaulted her at his home office. “My mind, body and heart were grossly violated that night and for the next 6 months,” the email read, which was also marked to Chopra’s wife, film critic Anupama, who is a director at Vinod Chopra Films Pvt Ltd, “Sanju” scriptwriter Abhijat Joshi and filmmaker Shelly Chopra, Vidhu Vinod’s sister. 

The complainant later told HuffPost India that she was “intimidated by Hirani “and that said she maintained a facade of normalcy as she needed to hold on to her job as her father was ill. “I had no choice but to be polite to him. It was unbearable but the reason I endured it all, until I couldn’t, was because I didn’t want my job to be taken away from me, and work to be questioned. Ever.” — PTI