#MeToo: Producers Guild forms spcl committee to address sexual harassment cases

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the Producers Guild of India announced Wednesday the formation of a special committee to look into matters of sexual harassment at the workplace within the industry.

The committee with filmmakers Kiran Rao and Ekta Kapoor among others as its members held its first meeting here Wednesday.

"The Producers Guild of India is committed to work towards making workplaces in the industry safe spaces for everyone. In this regard a special committee has been instituted within the Guild to address the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace within our industry," a press release issued by the body said.

Sneha Rajani (Committee Head), Apoorva Mehta, Ekta Kapoor, Fazila Allana, Jyoti Deshpande, Kiran Rao, Kulmeet Makkar, Madhu Bhojwani, Priti Shahani, Rohan Sippy, Siddharth Roy Kapur and Vijay Singh are the members of the committee, it said.

The first meeting of the committee was held on Wednesday and it was resolved to immediately ensure that our members are sent a copy of the Gazette of India with notifications issued on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, so that they may implement these practices in their establishments at the earliest, if they have not done so already, the release said.

To organize specialised workshops with the support of professional agencies, to guide our members in how to implement robust processes and best practices to deal with sexual harassment at their workplaces - whether in their offices or on the sets of their productions, it said.

The Guild will also organize multiple sessions of these workshops over the coming weeks and months, to enable all our members and their teams to participate, it added.

According to the release, the special committee that has been set in place will meet frequently in the coming days to ensure that this is an ongoing and sustained effort, that will lead to a safer environment for all members of our industry.

The Guild in a statement issued Tuesday extended "complete support to the movement to call out and report sexual harassment and abuse whenever and wherever it occurs in our industry".

It was Tanushree Dutta, who started the #MeToo movement in India last month, as she accused her co-star Nana Patekar of harassing her while shooting for a song for their 2008 film "Horn Ok Pleassss".

Celebrities including Rajat Kapoor, Alok Nath, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, and Kailash Kher have been accused of sexual harassment.