EXCLUSIVE: Saif Ali Khan on Sajid Khan's sexual harassment case: Takes a lot of courage to speak out

Saif Ali Khan reacts to the sexual harassment allegations against Sajid Khan, says, "it takes a lot of courage for people to speak out." Read his full comment.

Updated on Oct 15, 2018   |  12:14 PM IST  |  779.9K

The MeToo movement in India has garnered pace ever since Tanushree Dutta opened up about the alleged harassment she had to face on the sets of Horn Ok Please in 2008. Tanushree had alleged that Nana Patekar, her co-star in the movie, had harassed her by introducing some sleazy steps in a song and had also named choreographer Ganesh Acharya and others as complicit in the act. Her voice then went unheard but this time around when she did speak it started a revolution of sorts in India. 

Many Bollywood names including that of Subhash Ghai, Vikas Bahl, Alok Nath, Subhash Kapoor, Luv Ranjan have been alleged of sexual harassment by women on social media. Amongst them, Sajid Khan, the Housefull franchise director, found himself in hot waters after not one but three women accused him of sexual harassment. Further, Bipasha Basu too alleged that Sajid passed lewd comments on the sets of Humshakals, which made her feel uncomfortable. We reached out to Saif Ali Khan, who worked with Sajid in the movie Humshakals. 

When asked Saif if he ever witnessed any sort of inappropriate behaviour on Sajid's part and his stand on the matter, Saif said, "I did not notice anything like this. However, I feel we need to listen before reacting. Let people speak - it takes a lot of courage to speak about these things. Let us absorb all the information and then react accordingly." On the MeToo movement, he stated, "I think a lot of terrible things have happened to a lot of women and it’s very brave of them to come out and name the people who have molested and harassed them. I hope this leads to a complete change in attitude to what is ok and not ok concerning behaviour to the opposite sex. We also need to be careful to not react too quickly and in a knee jerk fashion  We need to listen, absorb everything, and decide what is the right thing to do."

Speaking of Sajid, the three women who accused Sajid of the heinous crime included a journalist, an actor and an assistant director. Following the controversy, the filmmaker stepped down as the director of Housefull 4, shooting for which was underway. However, Akshay Kumar has now requested the producers to stall the shoot for some time. Meanwhile, according to fresh reports, Nana Patekar, who was also a pivotal part of Housefull 4 has stepped out of the movie. 

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Top Comments
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Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
What he said it was right but what she told everyone is right because no one was alleged to other.
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Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
What he said it was right but what she told everyone is right because no one was alleged to other.
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Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
People calling Kareena "gossip queen" and how do you even know that?? Everyone gossips about each others in Bollywood, you dont think, PC is gossiping about Gauri Khan and vice versa and Deepika and Sonam about who have had plastic surgery and what about you, who are you gossiping about!! At least, Kareena talks about the fun stuff but she isnt talking about the fake traditions/laaz and girls characters that your mothers are talking about others's daughters!!! So many stupid people, Kareena is known for her honesty and loyalty, but it's India and desi culture that is known for its gossip about others's daughters, shame on you losers!!!
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Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
Saif the hypocrite cheated on Amrita by dating many ladies. He got drunk and abused other customers at restaurants. He hunted and killed endangered animals. He is uneducated and talentless. He thinks he is cool by faking a British accent, carrying a book in hand or living in a cluttered book house. He surely is not well read like he makes it out to be. He is a flop nepotism product with continuous flops and not versatile either. He is not handsome or a great dancer. He got his mom to get him a national award. The guy’s pout and fake wife held placards to sell her film by putting the mother land down but now the spineless couple is not holding any placards saying how ashamed they aren’t about Bollywood. The two of them are so fake that they say they do not watch Hindi films and TV but these beggars want the public to watch their substandard films so that they can earn a living. They don’t pay jewelers and designers, they go on sponsored holidays. Use their personal life and little child everyday to stay in news. This insecure couple knows that their time in films is over so need their friends like Karan to make films where they will play an item role. They have no talent to compete with Aamir, Hrithik, Ranveer, Deepika, Priyanka, Kangana so their work doesn’t do the talking. Hence the daily paid PR photos of their personal life and son to be in news. Publicity hungry couple keeps lying like they are very special and doing a social service to this planet by being a part of films when the truth is they need money from films and publicity
Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
remember saif can be a violent guy too. he assaulted tarina patels dad in public, that too he was an old man. so imagine what he is capable of when people are NOT looking
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Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
So called jazz-loving, Gstaad-vacationing, book-reading educated nawab apparently "did not notice" anything of this sort. Really? Were you asleep when Bipasha was noticing? She signed a contract not to speak up on all the details but still even she has not denied seeing anything. That too, like the other comments mention, his wife is gossip queen of Bollywood and he didn't know?
Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
He’s complicit.
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Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
We should give all of them (women)respect they deserve it
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Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
Ur wife is the gossip queen of Bollywood, u knew so shut up now
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Anonymous
Oct 13, 2018
Indeed he's right, it does take courage to speak and even more restrain to really listen, but in all honestly what else is there to hear pertaining Sajid before action is taken?
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