Director Rajkumar Hirani has been accused of se**xual assault by his former assistant director.
As reported by HuffPost India, the woman has said that the filmmaker of feel-good movies like 3 Idiots and Munna Bhai assaulted her on multiple occasions over a six-month period between March and September 2018.
She shared that much of the alleged assault and abuse took place during the post-production work of Sanju; the woman stated in an email dated November 3, 2018, addressed to Sanju co-producer and Hirani’s close business associate Bollywood producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra that Hirani first made a se**xually suggestive remark to her in April and then se**xually assaulted her at his home office.
“I remember forming these words on my lips – “Sir. This is wrong…Because of this power structure. You being the absolute power and me being a mere assistant, a nobody – I will never be able to express myself to you.” the woman wrote of the April 9 incident in the email to Chopra. Until the assault, the woman wrote in her email, she saw Hirani as a father figure.
“My mind, body and heart were grossly violated that night and for the next 6 months,” the email said of the period that followed.
Hirani through his lawyer Anand Desai has categorically denied the allegations.
“At the outset, our client states that the allegations made against him are false, mischievous, scandalous, motivated and defamatory,” Desai said in an email dated December 5, 2018, to HuffPost India.
Hirani also shared printouts of text messages and emails exchanged between him and the complainant with the publication to claim that he had a normal professional relationship with the complainant.
“These communications establish that the allegations made against our client to you, that have given rise to your queries, are false and completely unjustified,” added Desai in response to queries sent by HuffPost India.