Swastika Mukherjee accused her new film’s co-producer of sexually harrasing her.
Swastika Mukherjee accused one of the co-producers of her upcoming Bengali film, Sandeep Sarkar, of sexual harassment.
Bengali actress Swastika Mukherjee, who was recently seen in the Qala, made some shocking allegations against film producer Sandeep Sarkar. The actress, who is starring in the Bengali film titled Shibpur co-produced by him, accused him of threatening her via emails. She also claimed that he and his associates have morphed her ‘nude’ pictures and are threatening to leak them on pornography sites.
Talking about the claims with OTT Play, Swastika said, “It all started pretty randomly. During the entire course of shooting and dubbing, I have never been introduced to Sandeep Sarkar. It was another co-producer Ajanta Sinha Roy who communicated with us. Suddenly, Sandeep Sarkar started sending me threatening emails. He claimed that he was an American citizen and that if I didn’t ‘cooperate’ with them he would get in touch with the US Consulate so that I never get a US visa. He also threatened to drag me to the Police Commissioner, Chief Minister, and so on. Now I have absolutely no idea what this ‘cooperation’ means.”
The actress said that she had finished her share of work on the film and had not signed on board for the promotional activities. The film was originally slated to release in March. When she shared her available dates, she did not hear back from Sandeep. She found out about the shift in release date from her director.
Swastika added that not only she but her manager also received a threatening email from Sandeep’s alleged friend Ravish Sharma. “He (Ravish Sharma) further claimed that he was a ‘brilliant’ computer hacker. He said that he would ‘morph’ my pictures and send them to pornography websites. Along with the email, he sent two of my images that are morphed and nude. This amounted to sexual harassment. Sandeep Sarkar admitted that they are acquaintances,” she said.
Explaining her reason to remain silent about the case for so long, Swastika said, “If I wanted, I would have talked to the media about it then. I kept quiet because I wanted the release of Shibpur to be smooth. But it does not seem to end. Everyone will vouch for the fact that I did my job diligently while shooting. I went on time and did everything in my control to portray the character truthfully. This person (Sandeep Sarkar) is saying I have extorted money. I did not get paid a dime extra beyond what was there in the contract.”
Swastika lodged a complaint at Kolkata’s Golf Green Police Station last month and is seeking help from the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA).
