New Delhi: With #MeToo shaking up Bollywood as women have come forward to tell their stories of sexual harassment and trauma, 11 women filmmakers, including Konkona Sen Sharma, Nandita Das and Zoya Akhtar, have joined hands to support those who are speaking out. The group has decided to never work with any proven offender.
Meghna Gulzar, Gauri Shinde, Kiran Rao, Reema Kagti, Alankrita Shrivastava, Nitya Mehra, Ruchi Narain and Shonali Bose round up the 11 women filmmakers who have pledged their support to India’s #MeToo movement.
“As women and filmmakers, we come together to support the #MeToolndia movement. We are in complete solidarity with the women who have come forward with honest accounts of harassment and assault. Our respect and admiration to them as their courage has started a revolution of welcome change,” the statement from the directors read.
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“We are here to spread awareness to help create a safe and equal atmosphere for all in the workplace. We have also taken a stand to not work with proven offenders. We urge all our peers in the industry to do the some.”
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, many names from Indian entertainment industry have cropped up in the cases of sexual harassment and misconduct. Celebrities such as Nana Patekar, Rajat Kapoor, Subhash Kapoor, Alok Nath, Subhash Ghai, Vikas Bahl, Kailash Kher, Sajid Khan, Mukesh Chhabra, singer Raghu Dixit and Tamil lyricist-poet Vairamuthu have been ‘named and shamed’, among others.
Among media professionals, Union minister and former editor M.J. Akbar, The Times of India’s Hyderabad resident editor K.R. Sreenivas and former Times of India executive editor Gautam Adhikari are among the dozens of men accused of sexual harassment.
(With inputs from PTI)