#MeToo: Casting agents Mukesh Chhabra and Vicky Sidana accused of sexual harassment

India’s Me Too movement has arrived and more and more names of Bollywood biggies being accused of sexual harassment is being revealed with each passing day. Not only Alok Nath, Vikas Bahl but also Sajid Khan and Subhash Ghai have been accused of the ghastly deed and we now have Bollywood’s top-notch casting directors Mukesh Chhabra and Vicky Sidana too being accused of the same.

Mukesh Chhabra and Vicky Sidana have been accused by four aspiring actresses who opened on their ordeal to Mid-Day.

One budding actress who has since the traumatic experience moved away from the world of entertainment said that when she went for an audition in 2015, Mukesh Chhabra grabbed her hard and felt her up. “He asked me to enact a scene which had the hero and the heroine hugging each other. Under the pretext of showing me how the scene should be performed, he grabbed me hard and felt me up. I could feel his hand on my butt. I was shell-shocked and immediately withdrew. He realised [my trepidation] and started vehemently apologising. At one point, he said, I thought you were fine with it because other girls are,” said the girl.

Another revealed how she was asked to compromise by Mukesh over a phone conversation. In the recording, Mukesh can be heard saying, “You’ll have to compromise, get physical with people in power. I am not promising that people ready to compromise get selected. Everyone is ready to compromise. It’s no big deal. We can meet at a hotel tonight.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BndayEejHO6/?hl=en&taken-by=castingchhabra

Talking about Vicky Sidana, a girl shared, “Vicky was giving a gyaan session about how I won’t get offers if I don’t offer sex. When I stepped out for a photo shoot, he got chatting with my sister. He then pushed her on the couch and squeezed her breast, all the while muttering, ‘Actress Kyun nahin ban jati.’ When I heard about it, I swore I would never see his face again.”

Another anonymous actress said Vicky invited her over to his house to discuss a project and as the role in question needed her to have a pixie cut. He pulled her hair away from her face to see how she would look in short hair. Then, he grabbed her from the side and tried to hug her as he did this she could feel his d**k hard against her thigh but she somehow managed to escape his clutches and ran.

Mukesh has however denied all the allegations and told the tabloid, “It has been years of hard work and I have been around in the industry. It is unfortunate that people are resorting to name calling and making wild allegations. Hard work and sweat cannot be erased by making false accusations. I deny any such incident took place. If anyone is indulging in rumour mongering and mischievous slandering, I will take every possible legal action to protect my reputation.”

Sidana too said he has never called anyone home and if he has then his wife would be present. He is of an opinion that as these girls were not selected they are taking revenge and trying to malign his name.

Also Read: #MeToo: Kailash Kher threatens parents of victims with legal notice