Chitrangda Singh left director Kushan Nandy’s Babumoshai Bandookbaaz midway citing disquit shooting an intimate scene with co-star Nawazuddin Siddiqui in 2016. At the time, the actress had alleged that she was harassed on the sets of the film by Nandy.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement in India, the actress has once again opened about her experiences in the showbiz.
“When I shot for the film (Babumoshai Bandookbaaz), suddenly they came up with a titillating scene and asked me to do it with Nawazuddin. The director just ordered ‘apna petticoat uthao aur ragdo aapne aap ko’! Who talks like this? He was just atrocious. I was offended, and I walked out,” Chitrangada was quoted as saying by Dainik Bhaskar.
The actress said Nawaz was also present at the time of the incident but did not say a word in her defense.
“Nawaz was there, the DOP (Director of Photography) was there, a female producer was there but nobody stood up for me. And to top it all, during the film’s first press conference they very blatantly said ‘we are glad she left as we got a better replacement’. During one of the film promotional events Nawaz went on and made a statement that ‘humne toh doh baari mazze kar liye’ (We got to enjoy twice).”
Chitrangada was later replaced by Bidita Bag as the female lead of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz.
Director Kushan Nandy had denied Chitrangada’s allegations at that time. He said that intimate scenes were not the reason behind her walking out of the project.
“There was no issue about intimate scenes because she had already shot it. She had issues with the script and wanted certain things to be changed. It was her decision (to not do the film),” Nandy had said.
