Tanushree Dutta Lashes Out At CINTAA's Stand On #MeToo Movement, Says It Is Limited To Media Interaction

Former Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta has accused actor Nana Patekar of sexual harassment, while the duo was shooting for a special song sequence for the 2008 film 'Horn OK Pleassss'. The matter took a legal turn after the actress lodged a police complaint against the actor, choreographer Ganesh Acharya, director Rakesh Sarang and producer Sami Siddique. The Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA) had apologised for not taking any action against Nana Patekar and have asked Tanushree Dutta for a re-complaint so that they can restart the investigation on the case. 

In her latest statement, the former actress wrote:

"I'm thoroughly disappointed by the stand that CINTAA  has taken on the issue. After issuing a very public apology for not dealing with the sexual harassment complaint 10 years ago when they had a handwritten complaint from me.This time around I was called to meet CINTAA in the presence of their lawyer and assured that they will take strict action possibly expulsion of Nana as well as take to task choreographer Ganesh Acharya, producer Sami Siddique and director Rakesh Sarang of 'Horn ok please' incident.

I asked them if they can provide me with legal aid since they have their own lawyer and  I was being threatened by a legal notice of defamation from Nana : CINTAA refused saying it is not their policy to provide legal aid in such cases ,however they said the only thing they can do to help is to revive my old complaint from the year 2008 and take action on it .They asked me to send a letter through my representative to revive my old complaint so they could take immediate action.When I sent the letter they suddenly had a problem with the fact that it was not me but my representative who sent the letter and asked for a cover letter authorising my representative to represent me at Cintaa.I sent the cover letter along with the letter with my signature to revive the old complaint.Still no action.It seems their support of Me too is only limited to media interaction and big words.Actions speak louder than words!!
When major production houses have dropped those that have been named and shamed and major stars have taken a stand against working with such individuals even Government elected officials stepping down, CINTAA's poor logic of letting the law of land decide before they take action is laughworthy! Thus proven again that the actors association in India can never be trusted to bring any retribution in sexual harassment cases which is endemic and rampant in Bollywood.They have always been too weak as an organisation as I myself saw 10 years back; and the one chance they had at redemption they blew that too..and to think that so many actors pay their yearly membership fees to cintaa.CINTAA has failed me again.

READ | #MeToo: Alok Nath To Face Repercussions Ensures CINTAA; Ranveena Tandon To Join The Body

 In her statement, she also expressed another disappointment, with regards to Nana Patekar's role in 'Housefull 4'. She wrote:

"Second disappointment: After reports that Nana has been asked to step down from Housefull 4 because Fox star India and the lead star Akshay Kumar wants to disassociate themselves from those accused of sexual harassment a new report suggests that his scenes (all of 6 days worth of shoot) will not be cut from the film and will be retained in the final cut.What kind of disassociation is this??  Or was that also to just save face?? Just another farce to maintain image.."

READ | #MeToo | Nana Patekar Finally Responds To Tanushree Dutta's Sexual Harassment Allegations In Reply To CINTAA; Calls It 'motivated' And 'malicious'

"It's sickening that the only kind of retribution that I was hoping for is also squashed!  given the law and order situation in our country where harassment cases are not only hard to prove but also go on for years and years and very rarely bring victims any justice.I mean if there was a full film unit present and still these 4 individuals managed to harass me,intimidate me,threaten me and then call goons to vandalise my car and no one batted an eyelid or came forward to help or protest shows how many would actually come forward to help get me justice legally.I have a few witnesses to corroborate parts of my story,a video footage,an entire  career damaged due to slander by these four accused; but thats all i have to try and prove my claims.I was outnumbered then and I am outnumbered now even! This is the story of countless millions in our nation who endure workplace harassment.And CINTAA and Fox Star Studios still wait for a grand jury to decide who is guilty before they take concrete action," she concluded.