BBC had recently come out with a three-episode documentary series titled ‘Death in Bollywood’ that traced the mysterious death of late actress Jiah Khan who allegedly died allegedly by suicide in 2013. The first episode of the docuseries was aired last Monday and subsequently, the other two episodes were released as well. The series has only been released in the United Kingdom.
In the second episode of the series, Khan’s sister Karishma made explosive revelations of sexual harassment of the late actor by filmmaker Sajid Khan. Jiah is the sixth women from the showbiz industry who have accused the film director Sajid Khan of sexual harassment in the wake of the Me Too movement that took the country by storm in 2018.
Jiah was one of the actors to be a feature in Sajid Khan’s Housefull movie which also included prominent actors such as Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Riteish Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Lara Dutta, Boman Irani, Randhir Kapoor, Chunky Pandey, and Malaika Arora.
A clip from the series where Karishma is seen narrating the horrifying ordeal Jiah was made to go through by Khan is doing the rounds on the social media websites. Karishma alleged that the filmmaker had asked her sister Jiah Khan to remove her top and bra while shooting for Housefull movie.
Reminder that Sajid Khan is not in jail yet. pic.twitter.com/cZ5I8Rrys0
— Sidd (@siddanthdaily) January 18, 2021
“When she was asked by Sajid Khan to take her top off, she came home and cried. She told me that I have a contract if I leave they can sue me and slander my name and if I stay I will be sexually harassed. So it’s a lose-lose situation. So she did the film,” Karishma said.
In the snippet, Karishma, who was just 16 then, also recounts how she was also targeted by the filmmaker. Karishma revealed that when she had gone to Sajid’s house with her sister, the film director had made sexual advances at her.
“I remember going to Sajid Khan’s house with my sister. I remember being around at Kitchen’s table, I was only 16 at that time. I was wearing a strappy top. He leaned on me, and started staring at me. Then he said, ‘Ohh she wants to have sex’. My sister Jiah immediately came in to my defence saying, ‘no what are you talking about’, and he said, ‘Look at the way she’s sitting’. My sister said no She said no she is innocent, she is young, it’s not what she wants. And then we left shortly after that. But I was feeling really cheap and shocked,” Karishma said.
Kangana reacts to the sexual harassment allegations levelled against Sajid Khan by Jiah Khan’s sister
Soon after the snippet started going viral on the internet, renegade actor Kangana Ranaut took cognisance of the clipped and slammed the Bollywood industry for allegedly victimising her, Sushant Singh Rajput, and Jiah. She reiterated her previous claim of the existence of mafia in the industry that is allegedly responsible for the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, actor Jia Khan and had even tried once to kill her.
They killed Jiah they killed Sushant and they tried to kill me, but they roam free have full support of the mafia, growing stronger and successful every year. Know the world is not ideal you are either the prey or the predator. No one will save you you have to save yourself. https://t.co/7QwHAr9BBv
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) January 18, 2021
Sharing the video, Kangana said, “They killed Jiah they killed Sushant and they tried to kill me, but they roam free have full support of the mafia, growing stronger and successful every year. Know the world is not ideal you are either the prey or the predator. No one will save you you have to save yourself.”
Model Paula had levelled similar allegations of sexual harassment against Sajid Khan
The revelations made Jiah Khan’s sister have raised several eyebrows, especially in the wake of the similar allegations of sexual harassment levelled by model Paula against film director Sajid Khan. Just like Jiah Khan was allegedly asked by Sajid to strip off in front of him, the film director had asked model Paula to take her clothes off.
In September 2020, Paula took to Instagram to bring to light Sajid Khan’s sexually predatory behaviour. In her post, Paula stated that he tried to sexually exploit her when she was just 17, under the pretence of getting her a role in Housefull. Paula claimed that Khan had spoken dirty and tried to touch her, asking her to strip in front of him to get a role in Housefull.
Sajid Khan—a repeat offender
Director Sajid Khan is not new to these accusations. In 2018, at least 3 women had come out and accused the Housefull director sexually harassing and preying on them. A freelance Bollywood journalist had taken to Twitter to narrate her ordeal.
In fact, ace tennis player, Mahesh Bhupathi had also come forward to give his take on the sexual harassment allegations levelled against filmmaker Sajid Khan. In an interview, Bhupati had revealed that his actor wife Lara Dutta had complained to him that her co-star was being subjected to “rude, vulgar” behaviour on the sets of Housefull by director Sajid Khan.
