Mumbai , July 16: The #MeToo wave swept Bollywood last year, and serious allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against several bigwigs. There were rammifications too; Sajid Khan, Nana Patekar and others were dropped from films after being accused of inappropriate behaviour.
In an interview with Filmfare, Ajay Devgn was asked if it was ethical to work with people who have been accused of sexual harassment. “There’s a difference between ‘accused’ and ‘proven guilty’,” he said.
“One must definitely not work with those proven guilty. But those who haven’t been…we can’t be unfair to them. What about their families? I know an ‘accused’, whose daughter was so traumatised, she stopped eating and going to school,” the actor added.
Ajay was at the centre of a controversy for working with Alok Nath in Akiv Ali’s De De Pyaar Deafter the latter was accused of rape and sexual harassment by multiple women.
In a statement released at the time, Ajay had defended the decision and said that the portions with Alok Nath were shot in August, before the allegations were made.
“When the entire #MeToo Movement happened, I along with many of my film industry colleagues categorically expressed that I respect every single woman at the work place and I would not stand for any unfairness or atrocity against them. Nothing about my stand has changed,” he said.
“Coming to the question of having worked with Mr Alok Nath in my upcoming film De De Pyar De, here I must put certain things in perspective. This film was supposed to be an October 2018 release. The shoot of the film got over by last September. The portions with Mr Alok Nath were canned by August in Manali The said portions were shot over 40 days across various sets and an outdoor location with a combination of over 10 actors. By the time the allegations came out (in October 2018) the actors in the film including me had already started work on other films,” he explained.
Ajay went on to say that it would be “near impossible” to get the dates of all the other actors and reshoot the portions featuring Alok Nath. In addition, it would have significantly increased the cost of production.
“The decision to replace Mr Alok Nath could never have been mine alone. In this case, I would have to go with the joint-decision of the entire unit. Not to forget, I could not have brought the entire combination of actors back or put up sets again for a 40-day re-shoot because this would mean doubling the budget, which again wasn’t my call to make. It would have to be the call of the makers,” he said, adding that the circumstances were beyond him and that he should not be singled out as insensitive.
