#MeToo row: AIB posts after 7 months; Gursimran Khamba to not be a part of the company, Tanmay Bhat demoted
Mumbai, May 22 () Comedy groupon Wednesday announcedwill no longer be involved with the company andwill step down from the post of CEO. Last year, Khamba and Bhat, the co-founders of the comedy quartet, distanced themselves from the comedy group, which is battling allegations of sexual harassment against its members.
While Bhat is under attack for his inaction in the complaints against writer-comedian Utsav Chakraborty, Khamba has been directly accused of sexual misconduct.
In a statement shared on its official Twitter account, the company also said the AIBchannel is ‘dead for the foreseeable future’.
AIB said there has been an Internal Committee and anti-harassment system in place from the start. But the culture at work may not have been perfect which needs to be improved, the statement added.
A post shared by(@allindiabakchod) on
‘To that end, we maintain that Tanmay Bhat’s lapse of judgement regarding Utsav Chakraborty was egregious. As a result, even though, Tanmay Bhat’s suspension has been lifted, he will no longer hold the position of CEO.’
In Khamba’s case, the company said they appointed a two-member External Committee (EC) — comprising a senior partner at a law firm and a diversity consultant — to look into the allegations.
But the comic had stepped away from the investigation process during its course, citing ‘issues with procedure’, AIB said in the statement.
‘The EC was unable to conclude the investigation on account of this withdrawal. Given these circumstances, Gursimran Khamba will no longer be involved in operations at AIB, and will be working independent of us,’ the company added.
As per the statement, the company will continue to be managed by remaining two membersand, who will also pursue solo interests in the coming future.
2018: The Year When #MeToo Shook India
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2018: The Year Of #MeToo In India
2018 saw the rise of the #MeToo movement in India. Inspired by a global campaign against sexual harassment and assault, women across the spectrum opened up and shared their stories about abuse by men in positions of power. And it began in October with actress Tanushree Dutta accusing actor Nana Patekar of sexual harassment while shooting for the 2008 film ‘Horn Ok Please’.
What followed was a series of posts by other women who shared their experiences with the world. From actors, film directors to advertising top guns, artists and writers and politicians, women professionals called out obnoxious behaviour at the workplace. From unwanted attention in the office to sexual innuendos on the film set, there were many kinds of allegations that surfaced.
While some of these are still struggling in the industry amidst the allegations, some succeeded in getting a clean chit from authorities. Recently, rumours surfaced that Patekar has been given a clean chit. However, the ‘Aashiq Banaya Aapne’ actress quashed the rumours. However, director Vikas Bahl, who was one of the prime accusees, has been set free from all charges against him. The internal complaints committee of Reliance Entertainment, today, set the ‘Queen’ director free, who was accused by an employee of Phantom films under the #MeToo movement.
(In Pic: From top left, Nana Patekar, Aditi Mittal, Subhash Ghai, Anirban Das Blah. From bottom left, Alok Nath, Sajid Khan, Jatin Das, Vikas Bahl)
Nana Patekar, Tanushree Dutta
Former actress Tanushree Dutta in September accused Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her during the shooting of their 2008 film ‘Horn Ok Pleassss’. Dutta went on to say that she had brought up the complaint 10 years ago when the incident occurred, but no action was taken.
The actress also said that she was supposed to do a solo number for the film, but Patekar decided to join in and perform intimate dance steps that made her uncomfortable.
Patekar denied the allegations and sent a legal notice to the actress, who filed a police complaint against the actor and the film’s choreographer Ganesh Acharya, producer Samee Siddiqui and director Rakesh Sarang.
Meanwhile, Rakhi Sawant who had replaced Dutta in the song for the film, then accused her of taking drugs on the set. Dutta slapped a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Sawant.
(In Pic: On the left Nana Patekar, on the right is Tanushree Dutta)
Vinta Nanda, Alok Nath, Sandhya Mridul
Alok Nath, known for his popular on-screen portrayals, found himself in the midst of the #MeToo controversy after writer-director Vinta Nanda accused him of rape. Actress Sandhya Mridul also alleged that he had made sexual advances towards her during a shoot.
Nanda had alleged that the actor had raped her 19 years ago. Nath, however, refuted the allegations and filed a civil defamation suit against Nanda. Nath’s wife Ashu had also recorded her statement in court against Nanda and sought defamation against the writer-director.
Mridul, while slamming Nath for causing agony,
praised Tanushree Dutta and Vinta Nanda for their courage to come forward and urged others to not be ashamed and ‘keep this fire going.’
(In Pic: From the left, Vinta Nanda, Alok Nath and Sandhya Mridul)
On October 6, hours after Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Madhu Matena and Vikas Bahl announced the decision to dissolve their production house Phantom Films, director Bahl was accused of sexual harassment by a former employee.
The victim who had worked on the production house’s film ‘Bombay Velvet’ recalled her ordeal with Bahl in 2015. Soon after, Kashyap and Motwane went on record to say that they were informed about the allegations by the employee and detailed the backdoor deliberation that took place in order to punish their partner. Their statement led to Bahl filing a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against them. The ‘Queen’ director also demanded interim action from the court seeking to restrain Kashyap and Motwane from making statements against him to media or through social media.
While the woman had earlier refused to take any legal action saying that she stands by her claims, the former partners continued to fight it out in court.
However, today, the director was set free of the allegations against him.
(In Pic: Top left is Vikas Bahl, top right is Vikramaditya Motwane, bottom left is Anurag Kashyap, bottom right is Kangana Ranaut)
Sajid Khan, Saloni Chopra, Priyanka Bose, Mandana Karimi
Sajid Khan had to step down from ‘Houseful 4’ after multiple allegations of sexual impropriety surfaced against the Bollywood director. His close friend and aide in Bollywood, Akshay Kumar also chose to not support him and decided not to shoot if Khan was on-board.
On October 11, an aspiring actress, Saloni Chopra had posted a detailed account of the harrowing time she had with Khan.
A freelance journalist also claimed that Khan had exposed himself when she was interviewing him in the early 2000s. After the allegations, Khan stepped down from the upcoming comedy ‘Housefull 4’. The movie, produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and being distributed by Fox Star Studios, is the latest entry in a franchise that began in 2010. Khan has directed two of the previous three films.
Priyanka Bose, who has acted in critically acclaimed films including ‘Lion’, ‘Gulaab Gang’, and ‘Half Ticket’ among others, opened up about the incident that allegedly took place when Khan had called her for an audition. She detailed the incident and shared that soon after when she narrated the incident to her partner, he asked him to quit right away. She has been quoted as saying, “He called me for an audition. The text from his assistant read, “Should be comfortable in a bikini.” When I landed up with the required clothing, no sides were given.”
Mandana Karimi alleged that Khan made inappropriate remarks when she visited his office to discuss a role in his 2014 film ‘Humshakals’. The actress said that Khan had asked her to remove her clothes, in order for her to get the part.
(In Pic: Top left Sajid Khan, top right Saloni Chopra, bottom left Priyanka Bose, bottom right Mandana Karimi)
AIB said as a ‘hundred per cent independent, creator-owned company’, post the allegations going public, their business went to ‘zero’.
‘… The lack of revenue inflows made it impossible for us, as owners, to sustain outgoing costs… But with no revenue and operational costs piling up, we had to make some hard, and unfortunately permanent decisions. We had to let our office space and entire team go overnight.’
The statement added all the employees who were let go managed to find another job.
‘The AIB YouTube channel is for all intents and purposes, dead for the foreseeable future – there will be no new sketches anytime soon… If and when we decide to release other content on the channel (for eg stand-up clips), you will be the first to know,’ it added.
The statement was the first activity on the group’s Twitter page since October 2018, after company HR head Vidhi Jotwani announced Bhat and Khamba were distancing themselves from AIB amid allegations in the wake of thewave.
AIB Founder Tanmay Bhat asked to ‘step away’ until further notice
AIB has just released an official statement stating that Tanmay will be ‘stepping away’ from AIB. The official statement reads, ‘We have been closely monitoring the sequence of events on social media around the allegations against AIB CO-founder and CEO, Tanmay Bhat. We cannot overlook Tanmay’s role and in the light of this, he will be stepping away from his association with AIB until further notice.’
