Tanushree Dutta, who set India's #MeToo movement in motion last year, incinerated actor Ajay Devgn in her statement to IANS as she pointed out how the 50-year-old actor deviated from his oath of sorts by working with Alok Nath in De De Pyaar De. "Tinsel town is full of liars, show-offs and spineless hypocrites. And it seems by a large public consensus that the sign post is pointing currently at Ajay Devgn," said a part of Ms Dutta's statement, who invoked Ajay Devgn's tweet from last year, saying: "If anyone has wronged even a single woman, neither ADF nor I will stand for it."
"During the #MeToo movement in India, the actor had tweeted and sworn never to work with those accused and now in a surprising and convenient turn of events is working with rape and harassment accused Alok Nath and supporting him to make a comeback to Bollywood," Tanushree Dutta said in her statement, reported IANS.
Against Ajay Devgn's former argument that the portions with Alok Nath were shot much before he was named as an alleged sexual predator, Tanushree Dutta said: "Nobody even knew before the posters and trailers that Alok Nath is in the film, so if Ajay and the makers wanted they could have just quietly replaced him and re-shot his portions (which is barely 10-15 days for character actors in Bollywood), and given Vinta Nanda the respect she deserves as well as several other women who were troubled by this guy, but no."
In October 2018, Vinta Nanda - the writer of Nineties' TV show Tara - implicated Alok Nath as she shared her harrowing account of rape. It all began after Tanushree Dutta revived a decade-old allegation of harassment against Nana Patekar, accusing him of sexual misconduct on the sets of a 2008 film. As more and more names cropped up as alleged sexual harassers, several celebrities reacted on Twitter, including Ajay Devgn, who wrote in his tweet: "I'm disturbed by all the happenings with regards to #MeToo. My company and I believe in providing women with utmost respect and safety. If anyone has wronged even a single woman, neither ADF nor I will stand for it."
Ajay Devgn's tweet had arrived soon after Luv Ranjan denied the allegations made against him after he was named as an alleged sexual harasser by an actress.
Months later, Ajay Devgn was called out on social media after netizens spotted Alok Nath in the trailer of De De Pyaar De. Speaking at the trailer launch of the movie in Mumbai, Ajay Devgn said: "This is not the right place to talk about it. And jinki aap baat kar rahe hai woh film uske pehle complete hui (the film was completed before the allegations surfaced against the concerned person)," reported PTI.
Directed by Akiv Ali, De De Pyaar De also stars Tabu, Rakul Preet and Jimmy Sheirgill and is slated to open in cinemas on May 17.
(With agency inputs)
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