After TV producer and writer Vinta Nanda accused Alok Nath of rape and sexual harassment it made several other actresses like Sandhya Mridul and Navneet Nishan to come forward and relate their horrid stories too. Actress Deepika Deshpande Amin also accused the actor of sexual harassment in the initial days of her acting career when she shared screen space with the actor popularly known as “Sanskari Babuji”. However, Renuka Shahane who portrayed Alok’s on-screen daughter-in-law in the iconic film Hum Aapke Hain Koun! said that she is thankful that the film did not have an outdoor shooting schedule.
Deepika took to her social media account to share the horrid details of Alok’s misdeeds when she was a young actress just starting out. However, she teamed up once again with him in Luv Ranjan’s Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety said that he was “quiet and subdued.” Read her entire account below.
On the other hand, Renuka told a portal, “My God! I am so glad I wasn’t on any outdoor with him ever. My experience working with Alok Nath has been very good but I have heard that he has two faces. People say that he can’t really handle his drinks. When he is drunk, he becomes a totally different person. His Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde personality is known to his colleagues. I heard many such incidents after I had finished working with him in Hum Aapke Hain Koun and tele-serial Imtihaan, in which he played my father. In Imtihaan, our father-daughter bond was so strong and it was so wonderful working with him, but then I started hearing stories that he harasses women when he is drunk. It was so shocking for me because I couldn’t put these two faces together.”
Alok Nath and Deepika Deshpande Amin
She added, “Deepika Deshpande Amin had mentioned about this to me when we were doing 9 Malabar Hill together sometime in the late '90s. Couple of other young actresses, 17 or 18 year olds, had mentioned that ki party mein badi badtamazee karte hain (he misbehaves with them in parties) and one has to keep away from him. That he misbehaves does not come as a surprise to me now but the extent to which he went (referring to Nanda’s case) is really shocking. What Vinta has gone through is heart-rending. There are many others who must have been harassed but they are not coming out in the open."
Renuka Shahane and Alok Nath
Renuka wants men to stand up and support the #MeToo movement and said, "There are some people who are crass even on the sets and they may be great actors. Let’s put it very clearly. Just because you have played a saint, have been principled on screen, doesn’t mean you are principled in real life. You are just acting the part. We are taken in by that image. But I want the men also to speak up. Even the best-intentioned men… Why can’t they come out and say, Yes, this happened’. The least one can do is listen to the other side.”
The #MeToo movement has gained momentum in India after Tanushree Dutta came forward to accuse veteran actor Nana Patekar of sexual harassment and intimidation on the sets of the 2008 film Horn Ok Pleasss. Last night, she even registered a case against him and three others.
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