Anu called me ‘maal,’ alleges Sona
The #MeToo tide in Bollywood shows no sign of ebbing. Now, singer Sona Mohapatra, in an interview with us, has revealed she faced harassment from music composer Anu Malik. On Wednesday, she called out Malik on Instagram, for harassing her. Now the 42year-old singer has given details of alleged incidents, which include Malik repeatedly calling her at unearthly hours and calling her “maal” in front of her husband Ram Sampath.
“The first time I met Anu Malik was in October 2006 for the rehearsals of MTV Lycra Style Awards. He invited Ram and me for lunch at the ITC Grand Maratha, since he had worked with Ram... (Malik) didn’t know we were married and the moment I went to the restroom, he said: ‘Kya maal hai Sampath,’” alleges Sona. .
Subsequently, Anu (Malik) used to call up randomly, at strange hours, leave missed calls, or once in a while, if I picked up, [he’d] talk about strange things. I stopped taking his calls; I felt [there was] no need to tolerate this for the hope of singing a song for him. [This] was in 20072008. It’s been long and I just remember feeling uncomfortable,” she adds.
Speaking to us, Ram Sampath, also a composer, concurs that Anu Malik used to call his wife at strange hours and confirms that Malik referred to her as “maal” at the said event in 2006.
On Wednesday, Mohapatra, after accusing singer Kailash Kher, had called Malik a “creep”. Later, in an interview, Malik denied ever having met her. This was retweeted by Mohapatra on Wednesday night, where she accused Malik of harassing her and another singer, Suman Sridhar. She posted: “Really Anu’ji? Never met me? Called me at strange hours? What about Suman Sridhar? Didn’t harass her endlessly? She had to leave the country (sic).” Sridhar has denied this, but Mohapatra still stands by her claim. She speaks of 2011, when Sridhar sang a number, Tonight, for the film Luv Ka The End, which had her husband as the music director. “Anu (Malik) loved her singing and asked for her number. Our studio passed it on, thinking it would benefit her career,” says Mohapatra, alleging that after this, “Sridhar started calling me with tales of calls, messages and harassment from Anu”.
Despite repeated requests to respond to the allegations, till the time of going to the press, Malik firmly maintained: “No comments.”
I felt [there was] no need to tolerate this for the hope of singing a song for him. [This] was in 20072008. It’s been long and I just remember feeling uncomfortable.
SONA MOHAPATRA SINGER