Director Vikas Bahl has moved the Bombay High Court against his former Phantom Films partners Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane and others to restrain them from posting any false #MeToo allegations against him. After hearing the matter for three hours, the judge has asked Vikas to add the victim as a party and for her to appear in court. The court will hear the alleged victim, who complained against Vikas.
Last week, Vikas, best known for directing Kangana Ranaut’s Queen, sent a legal notice to Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya, whom he had called "opportunists" for making "defamatory allegations" in the wake of the ongoing #MeToo movement.
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File photo of Vikas Bahl.[/caption]
In 2017, Vikas was accused of sexual harassment by a former employee of the film collective Phantom Films, for an incident that took place in 2015 in Goa. The allegation resurfaced as the #MeToo movement encompassed India after Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of harassing her in 2008.
Anurag, in fact, had supported the allegations against Vikas while Vikramaditya called him a "sexual offender".
Vikas, through two separate but almost similar legal notices dated October 9 and sent to Kashyap and Motwane via email, had "denied all allegations and suggestions" made by them. He had reserved his "right to take appropriate legal action" against them, and claimed the statements have been made as a "result of professional jealousy and with the sole intent to defame him, malign his image and destroy his career.”
