Daily Times

After Bollywood actor Mallika Sherawat opened up about being “thrown out of projects”, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt says he was quite shocked that the former didn’t share it with him. In a recent interview with a news agency, Mallika had alleged that she didn’t get a few roles because she refused to “get intimate with co-stars off screen”. She added that “men took liberty” and “judged her character” for the roles she played on-screen.

“She’d come and tell me about every little problem she would face, and seek advice from me. Why would she hide something as horrendous as this? Unless she felt that she just couldn’t possibly bring this to my knowledge. In my association of years with her, I never realised that this is what she was battling,” said Mahesh.

He added that Mallika was a tough person and could stand up for herself. “How dare anyone try to trample upon her and make her some kind of a victim because of his imaginary power?” he said. The 69-year-old director-producer produced one of Mallika’s most commercially viable films, ‘Murder’ in 2004, also starring Emraan Hashmi.

Published in Daily Times, July 23^rd 2018.