After Vikas Bahl was accused of sexual harassment by a female employee of the erstwhile Phantom Films, Kangana Ranaut and Nayani Dixit came out speaking about his misbehaviour on the sets as well. In fact, actress Saloni Chopra who accused Sajid Khan of sexual harassment also went on to name Vikas for his extremely sexist behaviour. However, Vikas’ wife Richa Dubey had issued a statement yesterday saying that Kangana is trying to mint publicity out of this and her husband should be given a fair chance at justice.
Today, Kangana lashed out at Richa saying that this is not the time for women to take potshots at each other and undermine the #MeToo movement. She said, “Women should not stand against each other. This is the time to support each other and fight against the people who harass them. Of course, Vikas's wife will have a different experience. Being an ex-wife his social behavior may not be known to her that well, the equation has changed so maybe her experience is different, shall we settle at that? Like I said, the harasser and the victims who have shared their harassment are different from my experience, this may be the case but I am not saying that the other person is wrong or Richa is wrong. Everybody can have a different experience.”
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She further added, “Not every individual is the same with everyone. Sometimes the behavior also changes according to the situation. So maybe her experience is different, so, me saying that she is wrong or I am right will be totally inappropriate. But the bottom line is that we need to make this place secure and all that is happening is good, that the moment allegations are being raised people are taking away work from them, otherwise these people are shameless otherwise they will never be ashamed of what they are doing. "
When she was asked about Sajid and Alok Nath whose name has also been dragged in the sexual harassment allegations she said, “Well I don't know them personally and it's high time that women don't get questioned for raising their voice. Women have been questioned for way too long. Not all the people get quota (reservation) are poor but still they get it as it is for the upliftment of an entire section of society. Similarly, if one woman out of 100 is raising voice and using this opportunity for herself, let her do that. This is not the time to question women! This is the bottom line of the new revolution.”
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Vikas Bahl and Kangana Ranaut[/caption]
Defending herself and her words, Kangana said, “People who think I am doing all this for a film promotion are stupid people they should understand if I did all this from promotion do they realize I have never done a Khan film. If they have a little IQ then they must think that I have never worked with Khans, I have said no to Yash Raj Films, I have gone on Karan Johar's show and said whatever was needed and they think I am bothered about promoting a film. Films keep coming and going. But what is happening now is amazing, it's a big shift and do you realize how good this world is going to be for the coming generation, the daughters of tomorrow.”
Kangana also praised Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar for their stand on the #MeToo movement and their decision of not working with anybody accused of sexual misconduct. She said, “I'm impressed with their decision of not working with people who have allegations of harassment , otherwise this will just become a shallow talk. There should have been something concrete coming out and what is concrete is that taking power away from these people will only lead to betterment without power who will these people then harass. Then no one will get harassed."
It was Tanushree Dutta’s allegations of sexual harassment against Nana Patekar that fuelled this revolution and now several women are coming out to name their harassers not only in Bollywood but also in media and corporate. As Kangana said it is for too long that women have been questioned and pitted against each other, now is the time to unite and bring the perpetrators to trial.
