After a female junior artiste claimed that she was molested on the sets of Housefull 4 in Mumbai on Thursday night, executive producer of the film Manoj Mitra issued a statement, saying that the matter is certainly “disheartening” but beyond their “capabilities” since the alleged incident took place off the sets and not on it. Housefull 4 stars Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Bobby Deol in the principal roles.
“It is disheartening to hear about this incident. As an Executive producer, I would like to clarify that the recent incident that showed up in the news related to the sets of Housefull 4, is something that evidently didn’t happen on the sets or during the shoot; it took place off the sets and hence I have to state that it is beyond our capabilities. I would also like to clarify that Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh had packed up way before this incident occurred. It was their personal matter and nothing related to our film shoot,” Mitra said in his statement.
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Riteish, Bobby and Akshay on the sets of Housefull 4.[/caption]
While speaking to a news agency, the woman said that she and a male colleague of hers were on the sets and in the meantime, two men, Pawan Shetty and Sagar along with several others arrived and apparently misbehaved with him. As she attempted to intervene and sort the matter, the men allegedly touched her inappropriately.
Explaining the incident, Raman Dave, head of the dancers said that the incident wasn’t even remotely related to the film and instead, was an argument between the dancers and Pawan Shetty, who is an outsider, and reiterated that it happened off the sets.
“There was some argument between the boys which happened post pack up outside the set and the girl tried to save one of the males who was her friend, she tried to stop the fight but unfortunately it was a heated argument and during the course of this fight, the boys happen to push her away to stay out of the fight. We have learned that the argument was between the dancers and Pawan Shetty (who is an outsider) and nothing to do with our film. I had left from shoot but my set attendant Sandra was there on the set and even she has mentioned that nothing happened on the set. All the details reported about this incident failed to be true and it did not happen on our sets,” Raman Dave said in his statement.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered in the case.
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