A day after this newspaper ran a front page story about alleged sexual harassment by a top Bollywood director and his subsequent ouster from the film production house that he co-founded with three others in 2011, the dramatis personae at the heart of the controversy offered conflicting versions.
According to information available with us, a young woman working at Phantom Films had alleged that she was molested by Vikas Bahl, director of the much-acclaimed Queen, during a trip to Goa a few months ago.
Following her complaint to the other stakeholders at Phantom, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena, the matter was escalated to Reliance Entertainment with whom Phantom has a 50-50 joint venture. The seriousness of the allegations resulted in the company setting up a committee as per the Vishakha guidelines to hear her grievance.
