Yesterday, Tanushree Dutta had left us shocked when she had unabashedly opened up about how she was harassed by Nana Patekar on the sets of her 2008 movie Horn Ok Pleasssss. After the movement that had gained a lot of momentum in the west and had even trickled down to India, we were yet to see an actress who came out speaking about such a situation within the industry, until yesterday. A senior journalist had also come out in support of her saying that she was witness to the incident. After Tanushree had made such claims, famous choreographer Ganesh Acharya, whose name was also in the list of people that Ms.Dutta had spoken out about, came to Nana’s aid. He refuted any such allegations saying that the actor would do no such thing.
Producer Sami Siddiqui and director Rakesh Sarang were also two of the names that Tanushree had taken, who she said had supported Nana in his disrespectful behavior.
And now, Rakesh Sarang has finally opened up about his side of the story to Mid-Day.
He said,
Tanushree is saying that Nathni Utaro [the title of the song] was a solo dance that she rehearsed for. In that case, she must have heard the song during the rehearsals itself. Why doesn’t she remember that the song had a male voice too? It was always supposed to be a duet song.
He also advised Tanushree to move ahead and felt that she was creating a controversy probably because she wanted to make a comeback.
Sarang further supported Nana saying,
She misjudged Nana’s encouragement. He was shooting for a song after many years, so he was excited about it. She misjudged everything, including his encouragement. See, if your boss wants to flirt with you, he won’t do it in a public area; he will invite you to his cabin. There were around 400 people on the set that day. Will anybody take advantage in front of 400 people?
Responding to Tanushree’s claim that her car had been vandalized after she refused to shoot the song with Nana Patekar, he said,
The incident was resolved by CINTAA (Cine and Television Artistes Association). We conceded to her demands. Now if she is bringing it up, I think Nana can seek legal recourse.
Every story has two sides and since we heard the other side, we wonder how Tanushree is going to respond to Rakesh’s claims.