Phantom was a dream, a glorious one and all dreams come to an end . We did our best and we succeeded and we failed. But i know for sure we will come out of this stronger, wiser and will continue to pursue our dreams our own individual ways. We wish each other the best.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 5, 2018
— Vikramaditya Motwane (@VikramMotwane) October 5, 2018
— Madhu Mantena (@MadhuMantena) October 5, 2018
However, a scathing piece of news by Ankur Pathak of Huffington Post comes out dangerously close to this announcement. And it could be a hint towards what may have been the source of this decision. The article connects the two incidents.
The article serves as an expose of the sexual assault by partner Vikas Bahl in May 2015. It details of what the woman went through, which included not only Bahl masturbating on her, but was followed by months of harassment at work, violating various laws but more importantly putting the woman through life changing trauma.
In this article by Ankur Pathak, partner Anurag Kashyap has gone on record to say he believes the woman and, “Whatever happened was wrong. We didn’t handle it well, we failed. I cannot blame anyone but myself.” Having said that, he knew about this for a while and the woman does not feel this makes up for what she has been put through. Read the full piece by Ankur Pathak here.
The news of the assault first came out last year in April 2017 in Mumbai Mirror, but quickly got lost. Interestingly, and not surprisingly, a highlight from Vikas Bahl’s statement at the moment was “I do feel a little victimised.” (Read full report here.)
Today, Bahl is busy preparing for the release of his big budget film Super 30 starring Hrithik Roshan. The woman who was assaulted, is “still healing”.
We came across tweets about people worrying about the future of good content and films and the series Sacred Games. Granted, the news by Ankur Pathak may have not come to light before some of them said so. Firstly, it is possible to have good art that happened to have been made by good people too. Secondly, the dissolution of Phantom Films will not mean that every founder has to stop working as an artist, but continue to be the great creators they are and hopefully just make better business decisions.
But even if that is what the case was, what is the price to pay for long overdue redressal? I’d say everything. Hopefully, times up and #metoo will arrive in the Indian film and media industry and beyond.
Will anybody do anything about this bloody creep or will the industry protect him like it always does? ‘Queen’ Director Vikas Bahl Sexually Assaulted Me, Phantom Films Did Nothing: Survivor Speaks Out https://t.co/dKeqlMkE0n
— Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) October 6, 2018
UPDATE 1, 6 October: Kangana Ranaut has made a statement of her experience while working with Vikas Bahl during the filming of Queen, to India Today.
“Totally believe her. Even though Vikas was married back in 2014 when we were filming Queen, he bragged about having casual sex with a new partner every other day. I don’t judge people and their marriages but you can tell when addiction becomes sickness. He partied every night and shamed me for sleeping early and not being cool enough. I often told him off. He was scared of me but still every time we met socially greeted and hugged each other, he’d bury his face in my neck and hold me really tight and breathe in the smell of my hair. It took me great amount of strength and effort to pull myself out of his embrace. He’d say, ‘I love how you smell K’.”
UPDATE 2, 7 October: Anurag Kashyap has made a statement “in light of the recent HuffPost article and breaking up of Phantom”. The statement reveals that he was the one who gave the story to Mumbai Mirror last year on anonymous grounds, in his attempt to battle this when he was ill advised that legally he could not do anything about it.
The production house had been advised that Bahl could not be fired as 1. they had no clause for sexual misconduct in the agreement, 2. Bahl was an equal promoter/ director in the company. He also takes responsibility for the lady in question to have gone through “personal hell to protect” him and not letting him know of the incident for a long while. And apologizes to her again. He finishes it with a promise. “This will never happen on my work premises ever again.”
UPDATE 3, 7 October: Vikramaditya Motwane makes a statement too saying the first time he hear of the incident was in March 2017. And since then, the efforts of the three partners have been aimed at addressing this horrific incident. And his silence in the press was mainly “to protect the identity of the girl in question”.
Find both detailed statements below.
Full Disclosure – This article was written by a woman who has worked in the industry and can honestly admit, the industry is not a safe place to work for women. She has been sent unsolicited pictures, made indecent suggestions to on a weekly basis by countless men in the industry from all ranks and sides of the business, many of whom are award-winning filmmakers. While the toxicity definitely made her turn away from the industry, she will not claim harassment as they all got the meaning of ‘no’.