Twitter
Advertisement

‘Women’s safety has always been a priority for us’, say B-Town producers in response to Maneka Gandhi's plea

In response to Maneka Gandhi’s ‘keep women safe’ plea, some Bollywood producers say they’ve already ensured guidelines are in place

Latest News
article-main
Maneka Gandhi
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Two days ago, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi wrote letters to a segment of Bollywood about the law on sexual harassment at work. Her office said they were penned to ensure that production houses provide a secure environment for their female employees. The recipients included the top brass of filmmakers and producers such as Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Ekta Kapoor, Vinod Chopra, Mahesh Bhatt, Shah Rukh Khan, Sooraj Barjatya, Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Anil Ambani, Sajid Nadiadwala, Aamir Khan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ashutosh Gowariker, Manish Mundra, Pritish Nandy, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Subhash Ghai.

The letter was meant to inform production houses about the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women (Prevention, Prohibition Redressal) Act 2013 so that they can implement it immediately. And, of course, in turn, the idea was to provide a safe and secure atmosphere for women at work.

After Hrs tried to reach out to most of the makers whose offices have reportedly received the letter seeking their response. While a veteran producer chose to reply with “no comments”, many others said they were yet to read the letter and would be in a position to give their response only after that. There were some producers who didn’t wish to go on record. Ever since the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment case made headlines across the globe, Bollywood celebrities have constantly been asked their reactions to this misconduct. Speaking of his concern to keep women safe, Aamir had earlier told a section of the media, “I think sexual harassment is a sad thing to happen to anyone, irrespective of what your sex is. Sexual harassment is just not on,” he said when asked about the Harvey case. 

Such cases, he had said, happened not just in the world of films, but in other areas, too. “I understand that people are free to be romantically involved with whoever they want. But you cannot pressure a person into being with you physically. It happens not only in films but in all walks of life and is very unfortunate,’’ he added.

Earlier this month, Salman Khan had said on a public forum, “It is a disgusting practice to use somebody to take advantage of any person in return for getting them work. I’ve never heard anybody say it out loud but if I do, then I will take them to the cleaners.”

When After Hrs contacted Ajit Andhare, CEO of Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, he said, “This is a procedure which we follow committee-wide, in every department. It is done as per the Vishakha committee guidelines. We deal with it in an organised manner.”

Krishika Lulla, Producer Eros International commented, “We are blessed because we don’t have such workers working with us. Also our CEO, our marketing head and our PR head — all are women. There are a lot of other women working at different positions in the company. So we are very vigilant about all this. If anyone has a problem, they are open to speaking about it and we take action immediately. We have always been protective of them. I, being a woman, understand this and we know how to handle such situations.”

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement