After Tanushree Dutta's  spoke of her #Metoo story another victim from the showbiz industry came out with her horrific story that unveils the darker side of Bollywood.  The said victim was one of the woman crew member of the  Phantom Films, the edgy Bollywood production house set up by directors Vikas Bahl, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and producer Madhu Mantena.


She recently gave a chilling interview to Huffington Post accusing 'Queen' filmmaker Vikas Bahl of sexually assaulting her three years back during the pre-release promotional tour of their movie, Bombay Velvet.

Phantom, founded by Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madha Mantena

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Apparently, after months of agonised negotiations and recriminations, Phantom's films members did nothing despite of Anurag Kashyap promising the victim that Vikas will apologise to her.

Narrating her full story to the website she said: Bahl  insisted on dropping her to her hotel room on the early hours of 5 May 2015 and pretended to pass out drunk on her bed, only to awaken soon after and masturbate on her.

The woman was alone, vulnerable and recovering from an accident that had left her on crutches for months. She had only just begun to walk unassisted.

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In October 2015, she reached out to Kashyap and detailed her experience, but almost two years would pass before her testimony was addressed with any degree of seriousness.

Meanwhile, Bahl harassed her until she finally quit the company in despair, she said in an interview with HuffPost India.

Today, as Bahl prepares for the release of Super 30, a big budget film starring Hrithik Roshan, the young woman is struggling to revive her career in Bollywood: an industry where everyone knows everyone, and no one wants to upset anyone.  

 The news of Bahl's alleged assault was briefly covered by the Mumbai Mirror in 2017, but soon dropped out of public memory. Now, three years after the incident, the woman recounted what happened over a series of interviews that stretched over four months.

A combination of therapy, Buddhist practice, and support from her friends and most importantly, her boyfriend, she said, have given her confidence to speak out now.

In a sign of how the conversation around sexual assault is gathering momentum to demand answers from powerful men, Bahl's business partner Kashyap admitted to HuffPost India he had failed the woman—three years after he first learnt of the allegations.

"Whatever happened was wrong. We didn't handle it well, we failed. I cannot blame anyone but myself," Kashyap said. "But now we are determined to do better. We believe her completely. She has our undying support. What Bahl has done is horrifying. We are already on our path of course correction and will do everything in our capacity to fix it."

Recently, Kashyap tweeted that Phantom Films would be dissolved, and the four partners would go their separate ways.


Click to read the full interview of the victim