Last year in November, when the #MeToo movement came to Bollywood, director Sajid Khan was accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women, including actress and assistant director Saloni Chopra, actress Rachel White and journalist Karishma Upadhyay. The three shared their horrific experiences with the Housefull director and how he sexually assaulted and mentally tortured them. Following the allegations, The Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA) suspended him for one year and he had to step down as the director of Housefull 4.
Regardless, Sajid has always had his supporters. One such friend, who recently came to Sajid’s defense, is Chunky Panday.
In a recent interview, Chunky said, “The thing is Sajid has always been a very, very outspoken person. He has always been this flamboyant person, what you see is what you get. A lot of people might misunderstand Sajid Khan.”
Atrocious, isn’t it? But Chunky didn’t stop there. He added, “Sajid just says things for effect, he doesn’t mean them. I know Sajid since childhood. Of course, when these allegations came, it was a shocker to everyone, you know it was the season of Me Too, and everyone was getting exposed. So, we really felt bad. We had no option, the producer had a lot of pressure to drop him from the film (Housefull 4). Luckily, Farhad Samji agreed to do it. It wasn’t easy but full marks to Sajid Nadiadwala for pulling this off. Of course, we felt bad when we lost Sajid.”
Just to recap the allegations, actress and AD Saloni Chopra had said, “He said he wants me to do everything he tells me to. Stay with him. Maybe he’ll ask me to touch myself in front of him, maybe he’ll want to record it. He’ll do things to me and give me orgasm and teach me the art of sex but maybe he won’t actually put his dick inside me. Maybe he will. But it would be up to him what he wanted and if I thought casting couch was just about a one time sex then I was foolish. No one would cast me unless I was ready to be their ‘keep’.”
Actress Rachel White had spoken about the time Sajid had asked her to come to his place and asked her to strip for him because he wanted to see how confident she’d be sporting a bikini in his film.
Journalist Karishma Upadhyay had tweeted that Sajid flashed his penis at her during an interview. She wrote, “The first time I interviewed Sajid Khan in the early 2000s, he called me to the house he shared w/ his sister. Thru the interview, he talked about how large his penis is & how he knew how to satisfy a woman (sic).”
Doesn’t seem like something women can “misunderstand” because of how “flamboyant” Sajid is, does it?
Sajid Khan has preyed on women in the industry for years. Here's my story. #MeToo pic.twitter.com/Rufzs9dsp6
— YellowGlassDragon (@karishmau) October 11, 2018
Lipstick Under My Burkha actress Aahana Kumra and Bipasha Basu, too, had come out in support of these women and shared their experiences with Sajid, where he passed lewd comments on them.
It’s about time people stop sympathising with him and dismissing the trauma of his accusers. Chunky, are you listening?
Featured Image: Instagram
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