(Trigger Warning: The following article contains details of sexual harassment that may be disturbing to some. Reader discretion advised.)
After Jiah Khan's sister revealed shocking details of the late actor having been sexually harassed by director Sajid Khan, actor Sherlyn Chopra has added to the allegations against him. Taking to Twitter, Chopra wrote how Khan had indecently exposed himself to her, and allegedly asked her to touch his privates. Her #MeToo accusations come in light of the release of the BBC documentary Death in Bollywood, which revolves around the circumstances surrounding Jiah Khan's early demise in 2013.
Here are ten things to know about the recent #MeToo allegations against Sajid Khan:
1. Sherlyn Chopra, 36, is a film actor, known for being the first Indian woman to pose nude for the Playboy magazine. She has appeared on the small screen, in shows such as Bigg Boss and Splitsvilla, as well as in Telugu and Hindi films. The actor also operates an OnlyFans account, as per her social media updates. Recently, she alleged on Twitter that film director Sajid Khan has behaved inappropriately with her in the past.
2. On Monday, after a clip of late Jiah Khan's sister Karishma charging the director with sexual harassment allegations in BBC documentary Death in Bollywood went viral, Chopra wrote on Twitter, "When I had met him in April 2005, a few days after my father’s demise, he had taken his penis out of his pants and had asked me to feel it. I remember having told him that I know how a penis feels like & that the purpose of my meeting with him was not to feel or rate his penis.."
3. She added that Khan "not only asked me to touch it & feel it but also asked me if I had ever seen a penis as well endowed as his." Chopra says "phone records of the past may be checked regarding the same."
4. On being asked by a social media user why Chopra had stayed silent all this while, not sharing her #MeToo story earlier, she wrote, "He has the ‘superstars’ of Bollywood to vouch for his ‘character’. It’s my word against theirs. The Bollywood mafia is a strong syndicate."
5. In Death in Bollywood, a documentary recently released on BBC for the audience overseas, the events surrounding Jiah Khan's alleged suicide have been chronicled. Her family, reportedly unsatisfied by the investigations into her death, have come forward with details of incidents that apparently disturbed her. One such revelation is by her sister Karishma, where she says Sajid Khan asked the late actor to take her top off during a rehearsal. She also claims that the Housefull director passed lewd remarks at her own self too. Read more here.
6. Sajid Khan, who is related to renowned directors Farah Khan, Farhan Akhtar, and Zoya Akhtar, has previously been accused of misbehaviour as well. In 2020, an Indian model named Paula took to her Instagram account and penned a note alleging that he asked her to strip to get a role in his film Housefull. “He spoke dirty to me. He tried to touch me. He even told me to strip in front of him just to get a role in his upcoming Housefull movie," she wrote. Read more here.
7. Back in 2018, when India was in the thick of the #MeToo movement Khan was accused by three other women too, including actors Saloni Chopra, Rachel White and journalist Karishma Upadhyay. They accused him of misconduct with female colleagues on various film sets.
8. Chopra had spoken up in a statement saying, "He’d talk about his dick and how big it apparently is and his sexual needs. He would ask me to touch his dick and get irritated with me when I said I didn’t want to."
8. Amid the row, the makers of the Housefull franchise had reportedly dropped Khan’s name as the director. He had denied all charges, saying, “In the wake of the allegations against me and the pressure being put on my family, my producer and the stars of the film Housefull 4, I must take the moral responsibility of stepping down from my directorial post, till the time I can allay the allegations and prove the truth. I request my friends in the media to kindly not pass judgment till the truth is out."
9. After allegations of #MeToo surfaced against her brother in 2018, Farah Khan had expressed anguish, saying, "If my brother has behaved in this manner he has a lot to atone for. I don’t in any way endorse this behavior and Stand in solidarity with any woman who has been hurt."
10. India's #MeToo wave, sparked notably by actor Tanushree Dutta, has reportedly outed many big names from the film industry, including senior fraternity members like Subhash Ghai, Nana Patekar, and Alok Nath.
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