Swastika Mukherjee has accused Sandeep Sarkar, the co-producer of her upcoming Bengali film, Shibpur. She claimed that Sandeep and his associates sent her threatening emails asking her to ‘cooperate’ with them. The actress also alleged that they threatened to leak her morphed, ‘nude’ pictures on pornography websites. Reportedly, Swastika lodged a complaint at Kolkata's Golf Green Police Station and also sought help from the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA). She spoke about the harrowing incident and shared details with a news portal. The incident apparently took place in March.
"It all started pretty randomly. During the entire course of shooting and dubbing, I have never been introduced to Sandeep Sarkar. It was another co-producer Ajanta Sinha Roy who communicated with us. Suddenly, Sandeep Sarkar started sending me threatening emails. He claimed that he was an American citizen and that if I didn’t ‘cooperate’ with them he would get in touch with the US Consulate so that I never get a US visa. He also threatened to drag me to the Police Commissioner, Chief Minister, and so on. Now I have absolutely no idea what this ‘cooperation’ means. I shot the film and dubbed it and I never intended not to participate in promotional activities. Initially, the film was scheduled to release in March. I emailed my available dates to them. There was no response. Later, they shifted the release. And yet they did not bother to let me know. I got to know it from our director and again mailed him my available dates. By then he was supposed to helm the promotional activities. Now, what are they even talking about? There have been no marketing or PR plans that I received. In fact, when they released the poster, I shared it on my social media also," Swastika told the news portal.
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She further stated that her manager received a threatening email from a person named Ravish Sharma who claimed to be a friend of Sandeep. "He (Ravish Sharma) further claimed that he was a ‘brilliant’ computer hacker. He said that he would ‘morph’ my pictures and send them to pornography websites. Along with the email, he sent two of my images that are morphed and nude. This amounted to sexual harassment. Sandeep Sarkar admitted that they are acquaintances," she added.
Swastika revealed why she maintained silence after the incident. "If I wanted, I would have talked to the media about it then. I kept quiet because I wanted the release of Shibpur to be smooth. But it does not seem to end. Everyone will vouch for the fact that I did my job diligently while shooting. I went on time and did everything in my control to portray the character truthfully. This person (Sandeep Sarkar) is saying I have extorted money. I did not get paid a dime extra beyond what was there in the contract," she shared.
Swastika, a renowned Bengali actress, has also acted in Hindi films like Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, Dil Bechara and the Netflix film Qala.
(Source: OTT Play)
