Actress Swastika Mukherjee Accuses Bangla Film Producer Of Sexual Harassment
Actress Swastika Mukerjee has accused a Bangla film producer of sexual harassment.
'Qala' actress Swastika Mukherjee has accused Sandeep Sarkar, one of the producers of her upcoming Bangla film 'Shibpur', of sexual harassment. In an interview with OTT Play, the Bengali actress claimed that she has received several emails from a man named Ravish Sharma on behalf of Sarkar. She said that has been threatened with dire consequences if she does not promote the movie. “It all started pretty randomly. During the entire course of shooting and dubbing, I have never been introduced to Sandeep Sarkar. It was another co-producer Ajanta Sinha Roy who communicated with us. Suddenly, Sandeep Sarkar started sending me threatening emails. He claimed that he was an American citizen and that if I didn’t ‘cooperate’ with them he would get in touch with the US Consulate so that I never get a US visa," she said.
"He also threatened to drag me to the Police Commissioner, Chief Minister, and so on,” she added.
The actress also alleged that she was told and if she does not comply, her profile will be hacked and her photos will be morphed and it would be uploaded on pornography websites.
“Now I have absolutely no idea what this ‘cooperation’ means. I shot the film and dubbed it and I never intended not to participate in promotional activities. Initially, the film was scheduled to release in March. I emailed my available dates to them. There was no response. Later, they shifted the release. And yet they did not bother to let me know," said Swastika.
"I got to know it from our director and again mailed him my available dates. By then he was supposed to helm the promotional activities. Now, what are they even talking about? There have been no marketing or PR plans that I received. In fact, when they released the poster, I shared it on my social media also," she added.
Further talking about it, the Bengali actress said: "He further claimed that he was a ‘brilliant’ computer hacker. He said that he would ‘morph’ my pictures and send them to pornography websites. Along with the email, he sent two of my images that are morphed and nude. This amounted to sexual harassment. Sandeep Sarkar admitted that they are acquaintances."
“I have been working for 23 years in the entertainment industry. This is my 102nd film. I work not only in the Bengali industry but also outside. I take part in promotions like no one else does. During the release of Arjun Dutt’s Shrimati, I engaged in every possible promotional activity. I would do the same for Shibpur. I had to get the marketing and promotion plans. Also, we must not forget that even if hypothetically an artiste refuses to do promotions, one can never send them threatening emails," she added.
