When the MeToo movement ignited in Bollywood, actress Lara Dutta and her husband, Tennis star Mahesh Bhupati, were among the first ones to speak up against the unbalance power dynamics in the film fraternity, thereby supporting the cause. In fact, he even shared a post on social media on how Lara turned down an offer from Mukesh Chabbra's company once she got to know that he has also been accused of sexual harassment. Mahesh also lashed out at celebs including Suhel Seth and Sajid Khan for misusing their power.
However, there was a time when his wife Lara was helplessly 'complicit' towards her Housefull co-star, who was being mistreated by director Sajid on the sets of the film. Speaking at the latest panel discussion with journalist Barkha Dutt at We The Women event held on Sunday, Mahesh revealed, "We were in London at that time. She would come home and her closest friend was her hair dresser and they both would be complaining about how one of her co-stars was being treated by the director. Rude, vulgar."
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He further recalled how he told Lara of being complicit in Sajid's immoral behaviour by not taking a stand against him. "I told her, You guys are all complicit. All the four of you, who were in the film, were listening to what he was saying and not telling him it’s not ok. So, at some level you guys are complicit and she agreed," Mahesh added.
Hearing all this, moderator Barkha quipped that one cannot ignore that it was a coercive environment and it would have been a difficult task to speak against Sajid alone. To which, Mahesh replied, "I come from the sports industry where we think differently. Obviously, the film industry is different. If the fraternity decides to ostracise you, you don’t get work. But I don’t think its a good enough reason to let things like these slide."
Meanwhile, the Tennis star concluded by saying that the "cream of the industry has supported the movement" as everyone is on their super-fast path to success at different levels. What do you think?
