Amrita Puri has apologized to Farhan Akhtar for her tweet on filmmaker Sajid Khan and said that her comment was not directed to the Rock On actor. After Sajid was accused of sexual harassment by actress Saloni Jain and a senior journalist, Amrita criticized the filmmaker and called him a ‘creep,’ adding that she found it hard to believe that his family was unaware of his alleged behaviour.
Farhan, who is Sajid’s cousin, responded to her tweet saying that he “deeply resented” her “insinuation that me or my family knew of his behaviour yet did nothing”, following which Amrita said in her post that her tweet wasn’t directed to Farhan. In fact, she also said that she wasn’t aware of the fact that Sajid and Farhan were related and apologised saying that it wasn’t fair on her part to “generalize” as she did.
Read Amrita and Farhan’s Twitter exchange:
https://twitter.com/_Amrita_Puri/status/1051010199757234176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1051010199757234176&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ndtv.com%2Fentertainment%2Famrita-puri-apologises-to-farhan-akhtar-for-tweet-on-sajid-khan-but-reiterates-industry-knew-about-c-1931742
https://twitter.com/_Amrita_Puri/status/1050766519750266880
Farhan’s mother Honey Irani is Sajid’s mother Menaka Khan’s sister.
Sajid has been accused of behaving inappropriately with Saloni while she was working with him. Apart from Saloni, a senior journalist has also revealed that the filmmaker had “exposed himself and forcefully kissed her” during an interview. Soon after allegations surfaced, Sajid announced his decision of “stepping down” as the director of his upcoming film Housefull 4. Following his resignation, production house Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment announced that the film will be directed by Farhad Samji, who previously directed Housefull 3.
Farhan had also tweeted that he was “shocked, disappointed and heartbroken” to read Sajid’s stories.
https://twitter.com/FarOutAkhtar/status/1050674605331890179
In fact, Akshay Kumar, who stars in a principal role in Housefull 4, had cancelled shoot that was scheduled for Friday so as to express support to the #MeToo movement in India. Apart from being directed by Sajid, Housefull 4 co-stars Nana Patekar, who has been accused of sexual harassment by Tanushree Dutta.
The #MeToo movement in India was escalated by Tanushree’s accusation against Patekar where several women outed filmmakers and actors as well as alleged sexual predators. So far, Alok Nath, Subhash Ghai, Vikas Bahl and Rajat Kapoor have also been accused of sexual harassment.
