Vivek Agnihotri told me to remove clothes and dance, says Tanushree, lauds her heroes

Mumbai: Tanushree Dutta is making headlines and is being tipped to be the flag-bearer of the ‘#Metoo’ movement in Bollywood since she accused Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of a film in 2008.

Though the actress revealed she had experienced such behaviour for the first time in her career, she shares that there were another moment she faced which also comes under the bracket of sexual harassment.

In an interview with DNA, Tanushree revealed an incident involving ‘Hate Story’ and ‘Zid’ director Vivek Agnihotri on the sets of their 2005 film ‘Chocolate’. She claims he asked her to remove her clothes and dance to give cues to co-star Irrfan Khan, who, along with another co-star Suniel Shetty, got offended by the filmmaker’s words.

Tanushree’s statement: "This guy (Vivek Agnihotri) wanted me to give cues to an actor (Irrfan Khan). It was an actor's close-up. It was not even my shot. I was not even going to be in the shot. It was the actor's close-up and he had to just look at something and give expressions. This director, he told me, 'Jao jaake kapde utaar ke naacho, usko cues do.'

"...The male actor had to shoot back at the director saying, 'I don't need her to take off her coat and dance for me to give facial expressions.' This was Irrfan Khan. I really appreciated that he actually spoke up like that because it was his close-up shot. I'm not in the frame. He had to look at me and give some expressions. Why do I have to dance in front of him for him to give expressions on his close-up shot? This director tells me 'jao jaake kapde utaar ke naacho'. I was shocked!"

"...The actor was horrified. And, because he had done some work, he could say something. He just told the director, 'What are you talking about? I can give my close-up. Mujhe acting aati hai'. Suniel Shetty also spoke up. He was also there, he heard it and he got offended by it. He was like, 'Main aayun kya wahaan cues dene ke liye?' (Should I come there to give cues) Yeah of course, there are good people in the industry. Both, Irrfan Khan and Suniel Shetty spoke up. Suniel scolded that guy."

This is not the first time Vivek has got flak for a comment. Recently his derogatory comment against Swara Bhasker on the Kerala nun rape case was removed by Twitter, after he asked the actress, ‘"Where is the placard - #MeTooProstituteNun.”