In what has been termed as a shocking revelation, actress Tanushree Dutta has revealed that she was harassed by actor Nana Patekar about 10-years-ago on the sets of movie Horn ‘Ok’ Pleassss. Recalling the incident, the actress said she was to do a solo number, but dropped out after the actor misbehaved with her. She did raise the issue with the producer and director but nothing was done.
In an interview with Zoom TV, Tanushree revealed that even though industry insiders knew about Nana Patekar’s disrespectful behaviour towards women, nobody did anything about it and instead took the actor’s side.
“Everyone knows about Nana Patekar that he has always been disrespectful towards women. People in the industry know about his background… that he has beaten actresses, he has molested them. His behaviour with women has always been crude but no publication has printed anything about it,” she was quoted as saying in the interview.
“Everyone has gossiped about this but have never spoken. People with this kind of character speak like this against the kind of character that I have because they say she does glamorous roles so must be glamorous and all. Behind the back, they are so dirty. When you are in the industry you hear so many stories about these actors. But these things never take surface because they are PR packaged very well. They will give some money to some poor farmers. How much they do and how much they don’t, no one knows. But all this is just for show,” she added.
Tanushree also spoke to News18 about the impact of #MeToo movement in the Indian film industry, saying that there’s no hope for a better work environment if A-listers like Akshay Kumar and Rajinikanth do not boycott actors like Nana Patekar.
“Akshay Kumar has made few films with Nana Patekar in last eight years and Rajinikanth also recently worked with him (in Kaala)… If such big stars will keep working with these culprits then there’s no hope for any movement to happen,” she stated.
Tanushree, who won the Femina Miss India Universe contest in 2004, made her Bollywood debut in 2005 appearing in Chocolate and Aashiq Banaya Aapne. Aashiq Banaya Aapne was a box office success.
