Days after the sexual assault survivor Payal Ghosh opened up on the alleged sexual harassment she faced in the hands of filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, Bollywood actor Richa Chadha has taken to Twitter to affirm that she has initiated legal action against Payal Ghosh for dragging her name into the controversy.
Richa’s statement read: “No woman can be allowed to misuse their liberties to harass other women with unsubstantiated or non-existent, false and baseless allegations.”
https://twitter.com/RichaChadha/status/1307812144323330049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“Our Client has initiated appropriate legal action and shall further pursue her legal rights and remedies in law as may be advised in her best interest,” the letter by Chadha’s lawyer Saveena Bedi Schar stated.
Richa followed it up with another Tweet against Payal Ghosh insinuating that the latter had a hidden agenda behind the name-calling: “Attempt to rape is a serious allegation. She should have gone to the cops. Do you think feminism is women dragging your name in an obscene, unnecessary way in their personal battles? So I can make cheap allegations about you on TV? – Your agenda has blinded you towards truth. Shame.”
https://twitter.com/RichaChadha/status/1307925458688770049?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwSome on social media call Richa Chadha’s reaction as ‘double standards’
Richa Chadha’s Tweet was in response to another user’s Tweet, who had shared one of Richa’s old 2018 interviews where she had vociferously spoken against the concept of casting couch prevalent in Bollywood and advocated that women in the film industry should not be afraid of the big and influentials and stand up for themselves. The user had alluded that by going against the victim, Chadha is displaying double standards.
Actor Payal Ghosh accuses filmmaker Anurag Kashyap of sexual assault
Actor Payal Ghosh, the sexual assault survivor, had on September 19 claimed that she was sexually harassed by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and told that physical relationships between filmmakers and actresses are very common in the movie industry in order to make her comfortable about the whole situation. She claimed that Anurag Kashyap had told her that all the actors who had worked with him in the past, like Huma Qureshi, Richa Chadha, Mahi Gil, etc were just a call away.
Payal Ghosh had called Anurag Kashyap a ‘f***ing hypocrite’ for speaking on matters of women empowerment and the patriarchy.
‘Liberals and feminists’ jump in to rescue Kashyap
As expected, soon after Payal Ghosh’s allegations of sexual harassment against Anurag Kashyap surfaced, the so-called feminists and liberals, many of whom who had earlier vociferously supported the MeToo movement, jumped in to defend the filmmakers, absolving him from all the allegations.