A Film and TV actor Alok Nath has been blamed by another industry insider for sexual harassment and bad behavior. Sandhya Mridul, a known face on Indian TV and films, has stare a harrowing incident that took place when she was shooting with Alok Nath for a telefilm.
She has put out a long post on Twitter in which she says that Alok Nath, who was playing her father in the show, started with sweet talks but soon revealed his true side when he came to her hotel room in an inebriated state.
She writes, “At the very start of my career, I was shooting a telefilm in Kodaikanal. I was the lead. And very excited. Alok Nath was my on-screen father and Reema Lagoo my mother. Alok Nath was very impressed with me and called me “God’s own child” and openly praised me every day. I was over the moon. I was a huge fan of this wonderful Babuji. I felt so fortunate happy and confident.”
This is where the events took an ugly turn. She writes, “Till one night after an early pack up. The cast went out for dinner. At dinner he got progressively drunk and started insisting I sit with him and that I belonged to him and other stuff that I don’t clearly remember but it made me very nervous and uncomfortable. My co-star realised what was happening and got me out of there. We went back to the hotel without dinner. It was late and I was back in my room and the costume dada came to my room to give me my clothes for the next day as I had a very early call time.”
She goes on, “Few minutes after he left there was a knock on my door I opened the door thinking it was him again. It was an inebriated Alok Nath I instinctively tried to shut the door but he pushed it and lunged at me, I stepped aside he went flying past me into the room. I fell back toward the bathroom door he lunged at me again screaming I want you you’re mine. I dodged again he went into the bathroom and I think I latched the loo door and ran out of my room down the corridor into the lobby.”
She then took help from a friend from the film’s set, but Alok Nath refused to leave her room. He abused, threatened and tried to grab Sandhya. He left after a while, but the harassment continued. He would make calls to Sandhya’s every evening after getting drunk.
After a few days, he came to Sandhya’s room and apologised for his actions only to return to Mumbai and tell everyone how ‘difficult’ and ‘arrogant’ she is.
In her open letter, she shows solidarity with TV producer Vinta Nanda who accused Alok Nath of rape on Monday in a Facebook post.
Here’s her post:
