The weekend gone by was quite significant and was riddled with shocking statements. Anurag Kashyap revealed that his production house Phantom Films, run by him along with partners Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena, has shut down. Some hours later, a website wrote in detail how Vikas Bahl had sexually harassed a female employee in a production house with Anurag confirming all the allegations. The article spread like wild fire and sent shockwaves. The shock was manifold since Vikas had directed the 2014 flick Queen, which spoke of female empowerment.
Queen earned accolades for everyone, more so for lead actress Kangana Ranaut, and also for its other cast members. Nayani Dixit, who played Kangana’s friend Sonal, too got her share of accolades. Yet, she has no qualms in saying that, “Doing Queen was the biggest mistake of my life”. The actress exclusively spoke to Bollywood Hungama wherein she talked about her humiliating experience of working with not just Vikas Bahl but also the entire Phantom Films production team.
Nayani begins her experience by recounting, “Whatever the girl has accused Vikas Bahl is not at all wrong because he also tried his hand on me. I literally told him that ‘main tumhe maarungi if you do this again’. So I am sure he did the same with the girl in question as well.” The actress claims that the way she reacted to his indecent proposal infuriated Vikas who started behaving rudely with her. She adds, “Next day, when I came on the sets, something went wrong with my hair. I didn’t get it as it’s not my area of concern. But Vikas blasted me and he behaved very weird with me. Now when I look back, I realized that why this behaviour. Since he did not get a chance on me, he was taking revenge.”
This wasn’t the only time Vikas tried his luck. Nayani adds, “They kept us in a 2-star hotel. When I said that I am not comfortable, Vikas told me that he can share his room with me. Look at his audacity!”
Not just Nayani, but Vikas eyed many other women in the team. Nayani states, “We were shooting for the ‘London Thumakda’ song and in the crew, there was a 21-year-old local Delhi girl who was in the costume department. Vikas flirted even with her and she was very uncomfortable and she later confided to me that why this person is always behind me. Even Kangana Ranaut was witness to this drama and even she was taken aback. She remarked, ‘Tu pagal hai kya?’”
When asked why she remained silent on these experiences all these years, Nayani said, “I did not say anything then. I was quiet at that time as firstly, I was alone. I did not know anyone neither from Phantom nor from the cast. Hence, I remained mum and decided to speak when the time is right. Now I thought that the time is right.”
