The Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA) has suspended filmmaker Sajid Khan for one year over complaints of sexual harassment against him. The decision which came in the wake of the #Metoo movement after several women accused the film director of sexual harassment.
IFTDA issued a show-cause notice to Sajid Khan in November. The notice read, “Your lewd and obscene actions have brought disrepute to Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association. We, therefore, want an explanation from you for such offensive behaviour within seven days of the receipt of the notice for further action as per the rules and regulations.”
They also stated that even after given an opportunity to put forth his defence, Sajid didn’t give any explanation. In reference to Sajid’s earlier interview, IFTDA also said that Sajid exposed his real self and admitted to being abusive and disrespectful towards women.
After such serious allegations coming his way, and after being called out by actors like Akshay Kumar and Farhan Akhtar, who stood by the victims, Sajid Khan stepped down as the director of upcoming comedy-drama ‘Housefull 4’.
The 48-year-old filmmaker was accused of misconduct by at least women who took to their respective social media accounts to speak up about their heart-wrenching ordeals. A freelance Bollywood journalist had taken to Twitter to narrate her ordeal as well.
Former Miss India and actor Niharika Singh too, opened up about her #MeToo experiences in entertainment industry calling out Bollywood biggies Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sajid Khan and Bhushan Kumar.
Hindi film industry actors, Bipasha Basu, Dia Mirza and Lara Dutta also came down heavily on the director.
Recently, ace tennis player, Mahesh Bhupathi had also given his take on the sexual harassment allegations levelled against filmmaker Sajid Khan.
As the #MeToo movement gained momentum in India starting with actor Tanushree Dutta accusing Nana Patekar of harassing her, incidents of harassment and sexual misconduct started coming out in the open, with allegations being levelled against many personalities in the media and entertainment industry, including Subhash Ghai, Vikas Bahl, Alok Nath, and Rajat Kapoor. Union minister M J Akbar, comedians like Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, co-founders of All India Bakchod were all accused of sexual misconduct. Notable filmmakers like Vikas Bahl, Sajid Khan and Journalists like Vinod Dua and Sidharth Bhatia of The Wire, Prashant Jha of the Hindustan Times have been accused.
Sajid Khan rose to fame with the ‘Housefull’ series he directed. The movie Housefull was released in the year 2000, which had four leading actresses, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone, Malaika Arora, Jiah Khan. Housefull was the last movie of Jiah Khan before her mysterious suicide in 2013.
