#MeToo Firestorm Consumes Bollywood and Indian Media
India’s #MeToo movement arrived in a cascade of allegations as women took to Twitter to call out comedians, journalists, authors, actors and filmmakers - in the process, they have sparked a debate about consent and complicity.
Unlike its American counterpart, it has not been spurred by investigative journalism. Rather, it has been a spontaneous outpouring in the last few days, amplified by journalists themselves. And it has hit Indian media the hardest. Veteran actor Alok Nath is the latest to be named for an alleged sexual assault nearly 20 years ago.
His accuser, the director of a television show starring Nath, recounted the alleged incident in a Facebook post that has since gone viral.
“Neither I am denying this nor do I would agree with it. It [rape] must have happened, but someone else would have done it,” Mr Nath is quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper.
Meanwhile, the association of TV actors has promised an inquiry into the matter.
It’s difficult to say what sparked the torrent of allegations.
But it seems to have started on 4 October when a young female comedian accused Utsav Chakraborty, a 33-year-old comedian, of sending her an unsolicited photo of his private part.
More allegations followed as other women replied to her tweet or she shared private messages they sent her (with their names blurred) - they said he had either sent them photos of his penis or asked them for naked photos of themselves
Mr Chakraborty, who admitted to the accusation in a series of tweets, apologised the next day. By then, more women, many of them journalists, had begun to share stories of sexual harassment and even assault.
In the next three days, as more comedians, senior reporters, editors, popular authors, actors and filmmakers were “outed”, the hashtag #MeToo was trending in India.
The scores of tweets - in the form of long “threads” and screenshots of incriminating conversations - have set off a debate about what constitutes harassment, complicity and consent.
The media industry
Women journalists have perhaps played the biggest role so far, “outing” reporters, senior editors, authors and even a high court judge. And it’s likely the coming week will bring fresh accusations.
“So many allegations have come out and organisations are slowly realising that this is wrong and something has to be done,” Dhanya Rajendran, editor of The News Minute, told the BBC’s Divya Arya.
“But this is just a start. This is the first step to give women a safe working environment,” she added.
The allegations have made it to the front page of national dailies, forcing newsrooms to not just take notice but also respond.
Bollywood’s #MeToo
India’s film industry has hovered on the edges of #MeToo for some time. In September, a 10-year-old allegation by actress Tanushree Dutta against veteran actor Nana Patekar once again made headlines but, for the first time, it attracted the attention of several people in the film industry. Patekar repeated his denial of the allegations over the weekend, calling them “a lie” Then on 6 October HuffPost India published a months-long investigation alleging that director Vikas Bahl had sexually assaulted a female crew member in 2015. It also alleged that his business partners, including acclaimed director, Anurag Kashyap, knew about the allegation but took no action against Mr Bahl.