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

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.