Everyone kept quiet when I was harassed on the sets of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz: Chitrangada Singh

The actor recalls her traumatic experience on the sets of the film in 2016, when she was asked to shoot uncomfortable intimate scenes with Nawazuddin Siddiqui. 
Everyone kept quiet when I was harassed on the sets of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz: Chitrangada Singh

Championing the ongoing #MeToo movement against sexual harassment in India, Bazaar actor Chitrangada Singh recently recalled her traumatic experience on the sets of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz in 2016 — when she was allegedly harassed by the film’s director Kushal Nandy who’d asked her to shoot some uncomfortable intimate scenes with Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Following the incident, Chitrangada quit the film and was replaced by actor Bidita Bag. 

“I am extremely happy with the #MeToo movement, and thankful to Tanushree (Dutta) — she’s shaken up the whole country. I think it was all boiling under for so long and so much that it just needed one pebble to drop. I'm so glad that we are finally going forward and doing something about this problem,” Chitrangada said.

When asked about the misconduct faced by her on the sets of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz — the actor had spoken out about the incident in 2016 — Chitrangada shared, “I wish it (#MeToo) had happened in the West earlier — so that we would’ve caught up with it in 2016. To be very honest, I was not all that brave to have gone out and spoken about it. The only reason I spoke out was because the makers had said something about me in interviews. What hurts me is the fact that even though the male actor (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) was present on set, along with a female producer and the DOP, none of them said or did anything. They just kept quiet and later laughed and joked about it. They (the makers) also said some very crass things, such as do do baar maaze le liye humne (We had fun twice). There were also statements about me leaving the film because I wanted changes in the script. That's not true. Everyone knows why I left. I was in tears that day.”

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz was released in theatres in 2017. The film received moderate box-office and critical success. Chitrangada Singh was last seen in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Saheb, Biwi Aur Gansgter 3. She plays the role of Saif Ali Khan’s wife in Bazaar

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