Kashyap, Motwane issue clarification on action taken against Vikas Bahl in sexual harassment case

Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane Sunday offered clarifications on the row over sexual harassment allegations against their Phantom Films partner Vikas Bahl.

In separate statements, Kashyap and Motwane, who formed the company along with Bahl and Madhu Mantena seven years ago, detailed the backdoor deliberations that took place in order to punish their partner.

Kashyap said his legal aide told him there was nothing he could do to fire Bahl from the company.

"I did everything I could, within what I was told by my partner and his lawyers... His word and his team's word on any matter used to be the final word for us.

"According to legal advice provided to me then, I was told that we had very limited options. Now in hindsight and after taking stock of things myself, I can quite see how I was ill-advised," Kashyap said.

The director added the lawyers told him that Bahl's removal from the company was hindered by his status as "an equal promoter/director who actually ran the company" and that there was no clause in their contract to fire him "on the grounds of misconduct".

In a recent article in HuffPost India, a former woman employee of the now dissolved production banner has reiterated the allegations and shared further details about the incident in May 2015.

According to the report, the woman said she had reached out to Kashyap and detailed her experience, but no action was taken while Bahl continued to harass her until she left the company.

Kashyap claimed that the story got out only after he corroborated it with HuffPost journalist and added that he was the anonymous source who shared the story with the press last year.

Motwane, in his statement, said he was unaware of the incident until March 2017.

"I didn't hear about the incident between Vikas and the girl
when it happened in 2015. The the first time I heard of it was in March 2017, when Anurag called me and told me about it."