Back in 2011, Payal Rohatgi had accused director Dibakar Banerjee for sexually harassing her in lieu of offering a role in one of his films. She also pointed that he had asked her to "lift my shirt and show him my stomach" and revealed that when she called him out, the film fraternity punished her for speaking up against her predator.
Now in an interview with a leading daily, Payal opened up on how Dibakar has walked away unscathed despite her seven-year-old accusations against him. She claimed that her work was affected once she spoke up against the filmmaker by stating, "After I held the press conference, no one called me for an audition again. I stopped getting films. So I had to move to television. I kept myself alive with stage shows."
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"It was a case of one brother backing another. According to Anurag [Kashyap], I was having an affair with Dibakar. But if I were hypothetically having an affair, that still doesn't make Dibakar right; he was married at that time," she further added. However, Payal doesn't intend to pursue the matter further since she does not want her fiance Sangram Singh and her family to go through the earlier turmoil.
Meanwhile, she has urged Yash Raj Films, producer of Dibakar's upcoming film Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, to take a stand against him adhering to their zero-tolerance policy. "I didn't file an FIR against him because I was intimidated. In the wake of #MeToo, I hope things will be different. I don't know if YRF [Yash Raj Films, producer of Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar] will take a stand. YRF knows about Dibakar," Payal said.
Whether YRF will take action against him or not, still remains to be seen.
