The very talented Renuka Shahane has written a blistering post on Facebook, at once, shaming the Hindi film industry and backing actress Tanushree Dutta.
After a week of silence, ‘no comments’, ‘neither is my name Tanushree, nor is it Nana Patekar’ the film industry, or at least some people like Varun Dhawan, have finally found their spine, saying she should be heard. Dutta alleged that Nana Patekar harassed her on the sets of a film in 2008, Horn Ok Pleasss’ and misbehaved with her on the sets.
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Sat 21 Dec. 2024
Shahane, an actress, and a former co-host of the celebrated TV series Surabhi, wrote in on Saturday, saying:
“Nana Patekar is known as much for his volatile temper as he is for his phenomenal talent or his social service towards farmers. Many men & women from the film industry have faced his wrath. I have never worked with either Nana or Tanushree & neither was I a part of “Horn Ok Pleassss”. But there are some points in Tanushree’s story that resonate with me. I’d like to share them:
1) Tanushree made it clear that she was uncomfortable with a certain step in the dance and did not like Nana’s gesture/touch during that step. Even if Nana’s intentions might not have been to molest her, couldn’t he, the director and the choreographer come up with a step that made her feel comfortable? Is the work place meant for terrorising people or about working in a healthy atmosphere? Would the film have suffered earth shatteringly if the steps were changed so that an actor felt more comfortable?
What made Tanushree uncomfortable might not cause discomfort to other women perhaps but that is no reason for the men on the set to gang up against a person who is part of their team. If she was truly the daughter of any of the men around would they have really asked her to do something that made her feel very uncomfortable or would they want to change the step? Shayad yehi fark hai “beti jaisi” or asli beti hone mein!
2) As if four full grown men weren’t enough against one girl, allegedly some members of a political party were called in to intimidate Tanushree and her parents! WTH!!! If that is not a huge overreaction then what is? Allegedly, the political party wanted Tanushree to apologise for hurting the “pride of Maharashtra”. Can you believe this? Would this behaviour, to force a girl uncomfortable with a dance step, really make Maharashtra proud? Isn’t the pride of Maharashtra enshrined in respecting women and making it safer for women to live life? Talk about ironies!
3) And now let’s come to the aftermath. Whose career did this incident affect? None of the men had a difficult time. Their ego had won! The men got all the support that any industry ( not just the film industry) gives to powerful men. The only person who was traumatized was Tanushree. The scars have still not healed. Please do the math.
P.S: A little birdie from the set told me that the great producer of that particular film had many legal issues about non payment of dues & even talk of being funded by the underworld. But hey hey hey thats okay I guess. He must have been impeccably honest. After all he was upholding the “pride of Maharashtra”! Right???
There are small people (both men & women) with big egos in many places of power all over the world. When I see that too many people gang up against one person I consider that bullying and bullying cannot be right from any angle. It dehumanizes the victim! According to me Tanushree has been very brave, not the “victors” of that day!”
Shahane also shared the video footage of thugs of a political party attempting to trash the car Dutta and her parents were in, in the immediate aftermath of the showdown during the Horn Ok Pleasss shoot in 2008.
Shahane writes:
“Please check the actual footage of the incident where Tanushree Dutta’s car was attacked in 2008 when she wanted to leave the film set of “Horn Ok pleasss”. The police were called to escort her car otherwise these supposed political party karyakartas or goons or whatever who were called by the Producer would’nt have thought twice before hitting her. Put yourself in her position in the car yourself or put your mother, wife, friends, sisters or daughters. Would you ever want this dangerous, cowardly, heinous thing to happen to them or to any human being? Tanushree was only 24 at that time. Absolutely disgusted by these scary visuals. I hope all those maligning Tanushree now realise how serious the matter was, how terribly scared she must have been and how traumatized she must have felt. Sick.”
