Swastika Mukherjee accuses producer of Shibpur of sexual harassment
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Kolkata: Bengali actress Swastika Mukherjee has accused the co-producer of her upcoming film Shibpur of sexual harassment. She said a man representing Sandeep Sarkar threatened to morph her photos and upload them on pornography websites.
In an interview with OTT Play, she said a man named Ravish Sharma sent her several emails threatening dire consequences if she doesn't promote the film. He said he will hack into her profiles, morph her photos using AI, and upload them on porn websites.
"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 would never get a US visa. He also threatened to drag me to the Police Commissioner, Chief Minister, and so on," said the actress.
"Now I have absolutely no idea what this ‘cooperation’ means. I shot the film and dubbed it and I never intended not to participate in promotional activities. Initially, the film was scheduled to release in March. I emailed my available dates to them. There was no response. Later, they shifted the release. And yet they did not bother to let me know. I got to know it from our director and again mailed him my available dates. By then he was supposed to helm the promotional activities. Now, what are they even talking about? There have been no marketing or PR plans that I received. In fact, when they released the poster, I shared it on my social media also," she added.
She revealed that she has been in touch with authorities since last month and filed a police complaint. Since the producer is causing her and her manager distress, she decided to go public.
Swastika told the Times of India that the film's director Arindam Bhattacharya is also being threatened.
