Sona Mahapatra shared this image. . (courtesy: sonamohapatra)
Singer Sona Mohapatra has slammed the makers of Bigg Boss 16 over #MeToo accused Sajid Khan's participation in the show. The 46-year-old singer, in a series of tweets, called Indian TV channels and their executives “depraved and sad lot” for signing up “multiple #MeToo accused perverts to get TRPs.” Sona Mohapatra shared her #MeToo story in 2018 when the movement was at its peak in India. Back then, she accused playback singer Kailash Kher and music composer Anu Malik of sexual misconduct. Now, Sona Mohapatra has called out the Bigg Boss makers for being tone-deaf over filmmaker Sajid Khan's participation in the new season of the reality TV show hosted by Salman Khan. Sona Mohapatra also singled out lyricist Javed Akhtar and his son, actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar for choosing to “have remained silent all these years about these men (Sajid Khan, Anu Malik, Vikas Bahl, Kailash Kher and others) who they know very, very well, personally.”
Farhan Akhtar is Sajid Khan's maternal cousin and the Toofan actor had condemned “Sajid's behaviour” in a tweet in October 2018. Farhan had also spoken in favour of women, including actresses Saloni Chopra, Rachel White, Mandana Karimi and journalist Karishma Upadhyay, who had accused Sajid Khan of sexual harassment, at an event a month after his tweet.
Resharing a tweet by TV anchor Janice Sequeira on Sajid Khan's Bigg Boss participation, where she listed “a few things this filmmaker-turned-reality contestant has been accused of,” Sona Mohapatra wrote on Sunday, “This is Sajid Khan, now on a reality TV show. Then there is Anu Malik, judging a music reality show on TV, for children no less. Kailash Kher? Celebrity judge on TV. All called out by many, many women in #MeToo. Indian TV channels, executives are indeed depraved and sad lot.”
In October 2018, Sona Mohapatra accused singers Kailash Kher and Anu Malik of sexual harassment in separate tweets and Instagram posts. While recalling her #MeToo account of Kailash Kher, here's what Sona Mohapatra had tweeted:
The singer had, in an interview with Hindustan Times in 2018, also shared that Anu Malik had called her “maal” in front of her husband Ram Sampath. She also reacted to Anu Malik's claims that he had never met her after she named him in the #MeToo movement.
After he was accused in a number of #MeToo accounts, Anu Malik stepped down as Indian Idol judge, which Sona Mohapatra had remarked as a "symbolic victory.”
In a subsequent tweet of her Sunday post, Sona Mohapatra said, “And of course, the series sleaze. Vikas Bahl and master of disgusting, Suhel Seth, all back on Indian TV...thought that calms me (?) that it's a dying medium and some dying will thrash around doing the worst to save themselves, even if it means dragging other humans under; women.” Vikas Bahl was given clean chit in a sexual misconduct case filed against him by a former employee in 2019.
Tagging Javed Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar, Sona Mohapatra tweeted that “charity begins at home.” She added this in her tweet for Farhan: “You front an organisation called MARD. This man (Sajid Khan) and the many others are known to you personally. Speak up, stand up only when it's convenient or pays to virtue signal for ‘our cause' not now?”
Slamming those who have been providing opportunities to #MeToo accused, the singer wrote in the following tweet, “India? It's only on us to feel triggered, pain, humiliated and let down. Bear the consequences for speaking up. Lose the few opportunities we have? Be trolled? Called out; troublemaker, controversial and worse?”
Sona Mohapatra also mocked the television marketing teams for having “zero abilities to innovate apart from casting multiple #MeToo accused perverts.” She wrote: “Here's a suggestion to TV marketing teams with zero abilities to innovate apart from casting multiple #MeToo accused perverts to get PR, TRPs; line up a show with a houseful of molesters, rapists, paedophiles and even wife beaters. Enjoy taking society to a new low? Make them stars.”
Sona Mohapatra, who has always been vocal about her views on social topics, had also supported many women to bring into light their own experiences against renowned Bollywood personalities.
Sajid Khan, during the grand premiere of Bigg Boss 16, opened up about losing the credit for Housefull 4 - he stepped down as the director of the 2019 film due to the #MeToo allegations. Read what he said here.