Rajat Kapoor apologises in wake of sexual harassment allegations
Actor-filmmaker Rajat Kapoor is the latest Bollywood celebrity, after Queen director Vikas Bahl and actor Nana Patekar, to be accused of sexually harassing a woman (women in Vikas and Rajat’s cases).
Writer-journalist Sandhya Menon posted screenshots of a chat with an anonymous journalist who accused Rajat of harassing her. She wrote that in the middle of a telephonic interview, he asked her, “…Are you as sexy as you sound? Stunned, I let it pass and tried to veer the interview towards other questions. He wouldn’t let it go. Tell me your viral stats, he says. And he kept on — do you come to Mumbai? No, I said. I don’t. Why don’t you, he said, I will put you up...” (sic)
Another woman shared her encounter with Rajat, to Sandhya, “More than 10 years ago, when I was... assistant director on a film, he would call me incessantly from his friend (actor) Saurabh Shukla’s phone (he didn’t have a phone) and ask me to “shoot a film” for him. I didn’t fall for his crap, but I’m sure someone desperate enough to make it big in the film industry would have.”
A filmmaker meanwhile accused Rajat on Twitter of allegedly making 17 unsolicited calls to her, and then “cursed out” for not answering calls.
HT couldn’t independently verify the veracity of the accusations. Despite repeated requests, Rajat Kapoor didn’t respond to the matter till the time of going to press.
He, however, posted an apology on Twitter. He wrote, “All my life I have tried to be a decent man, to do the right thing. If however, I have slipped and through my actions or words caused pain or hurt or trauma to absolutely anybody, please accept my apology. I am sorry from the bottom of my heart… If there is one thing more important to me than even my work, it is to be a good human being. And I have tried to be that person. And now, I will try harder.”
When contacted, actor Ranvir Shorey, who worked with Rajat in many films said, “I’m unaware of this, so I don’t think I’m in a position to say anything at the moment.”