MeToo movement takes down Indian Film, Media & the Entertainment industry! Tamil Movie, Music Reviews and News

MeToo movement takes down Indian Film, Media & the Entertainment industry!

PUBLISHED DATE : 09/Oct/2018

MeToo movement takes down Indian Film, Media & the Entertainment industry!

The out-pour of sexual assault allegations against Indian actors, filmmakers, comedians, journalists and authors has been coming out in abundance over the last few days on twitter and these allegations have started gaining attention at the international level as well.

In what is being dubbed as the Indian Me Too movement [The hashtag #MeToo was first used in Oct, 2017 to bring attention to sexual assault stories from Hollywood, which later cascaded into a digital movement to name and shame abusers], well known names like Nana Patekar(actor), Vikas Bahl (director/producer), Chetan Bhagat (author), Vairamuthu (lyricist) among others have been smeared the most.

A look into where it all started and how it has taken course:

The Beginning

Indian actress Tanushree Dutta who had not lived in India for while, laid the first brick of this MeToo flood-gate when she came out in the public with a 10 year old incident of assault by actor Nana Patekar on a film set, which was corroborated by an AD from the set and a journalist present to witness the event.

Bollywood's MeToo

Following the claims by Tanushree, stand-up comedian Utsav Chakraborthy was outed for sending unsolicited pictures of his private parts multiple times and his former employers and frequent collaborators All India Backchod (AIB) came under fire for not severing ties despite knowing about Utsav's behaviour.

This in-turn cascaded into a series of outbursts from all corners, bringing out names like Alok Nath (actor), Rajat Kapoor (actor), Chetan Bhagat (author), Gurusimran Khamba (AIB co-founder), Kailash Kher (musician) among others.

**Quick Read on Bollywoods' MeToo**
Allegations	Response
Nana Patekar	As of today, Nana Patekar has claimed Tanushree's claims to be a 'lie' and has sent her a legal notice demanding an apology. Tanushree inturn has filed a police complaint against the actor and the director Rakesh Sarang, producer Samme Siddiqui and choreographer Ganesh Acharya for being complicit in the harassment event.
Utsav Chakraborthy	Response, Reaction
Chetan Bhagat	Response
Rajat Kapoor	Response, Reaction
Vikas Bahl Expose	Reaction
Guru Simran Khamba	Response, Reaction
Kailash Kher	“I was travelling and when I heard about this news, I got extremely disappointed to know what my state of happiness has been taken for. I am neither aware of any such act that has been mentioned nor remember it. I am almost all the time in my own simple world, but in case anyone has taken or thought something differently about anything, then it is my sincere apology. My devotion to music makes me who I am and I am thankful for all the love and support,”
Varun Grover	Response
Alok Nath	Yet to Respond

MeToo turns to the South

Slowly, sexual assault allegations from all over India started cropping up and prominent names from the South such as Vairamuthu (Tamil lyricist), K.R . Sreenivas (Times of India Editor, Hyderabad) and others such as actor TM Karthikeya, Radha Ravi, etc too have been pointed at by twitter users. However, unlike their North Indian counterparts, most of the allegations from the South have preferred to remain anonymous and it is singer Chinmayi Sripadaa who has been vetting & posting their accounts of their story.

Journalist K.R. Sreenivas