Daily Times

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan has stepped down as the producer of the Gulshan Kumar biopic ‘Mogul,’ due to allegations of sexual misconduct against the director of the film Subhash Kapoor.

Without naming the filmmaker or the project, a statement released by Aamir and his wife Kiran Rao on Wednesday said, “At Aamir Khan Productions we have always had a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour of any kind… Two weeks ago, when traumatic #MeToo stories began emerging, it was brought to our attention that someone we were about to begin work with has been accused of sexual misconduct.”

The statement added that the case is sub judice and the court is yet to deliver its judgment. “Without casting any aspersions on anyone involved in this case, and without coming to any conclusions about these specific allegations, we have decided to step away from this film,” it read.

In 2014, actress Geetika Tyagi had filed an FIR against Subhash Kapoor, accusing him of “forcing himself” on her and “dragging her” during a party

Subhash Kapoor said that he understands and respects Aamir and Kiran’s decision, and “intend(s) to prove (his) innocence in the court of law”. He added, “I do want to raise a question – is secretly filming a crying woman without her consent and knowledge and uploading it on social media not harassment or abuse? Or is it fine if she is related to someone who is “accused” of a misconduct. If your answer is latter then for me it’s nothing less than a khaap panchayat mentality.”

Aamir and Kiran’s decision to opt out of ‘Mogul’ comes after actress Geetika Tyagi tweeted to Kiran, who is the chairperson of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, if she remembers that “her husband himself is working with Subhash Kapoor who’s being prosecuted for sexual assault and molestation”.

In 2014, Geetika had filed an FIR against Subhash, accusing him of “forcing himself” on her and “dragging her” during a party. She even shared a video on YouTube in which she is seen confronting and slapping him.

Meanwhile, Subhash has been dropped as the director of Mogul. T-Series head honcho Bhushan Kumar, who was bankrolling the film, told a leading website, “It is our foremost duty to make our industry safe for everyone, make an industry that creates environment of equality and a better place to work. With the on-going proceedings against the director that have been brought to our notice, everyone at T-Series has decided to not work with the director.”

Published in Daily Times, September 12^th 2018.