Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap finally accepted on Saturday that he was aware of the sexual harassment allegations against Phantom Films' co-owner Vikas Bahl and apologised to the victim by saying he is 'deeply, truly sorry'. His official statement came after a website revealed an article, where a former woman employee at Phantom Films recounted her horrific sexual harassment ordeal at the hands of Vikas and stated that no action was taken against him either by Anurag or the other founders of the production house.
Sharing a two-page explanation on Twitter, Anurag mentioned that he was misguided by those in-charge of the legal department. “According to legal advice provided to me then, I was told I had very limited options. Now in hindsight and after taking stock of things myself, I can quite see how I was ill-advised,” he said.
He further added that despite barring Vikas from entering the office premises and taking away his signing authority, they still could not fire him as their contracts had no provisions that would allow a co-owner to be fired on grounds of misconduct. Acknowledging that Phantom Films should have had such a clause, he added, "I am an idiot to not understand what I am signing, so I should be put in the dock for that."
The Manmarziyaan director also claimed that he named and shamed Vikas privately and it was him who was responsible for bringing out Vikas’ name publicly by speaking with a leading daily on an anonymous basis. Furthermore, he said that he was "ill-advised" that there was little he could do and added that it is no excuse for not taking timely action against Vikas by saying, "I am deeply, truly sorry to the woman in question and she has known this all this while. This will never happen again on my work premises ever again."
After releasing the statement, Anurag changed his display photo to a black banner and his Twitter bio to "Ashamed, freelancer, filmmaker on hire."
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