Mumbai : Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who worked with him on his 2017 film "Sanju". Hirani has categorically denied the allegations. His lawyer Anand Desai termed the allegations "false, mischievous, scandalous, motivated and defamatory".
In an article on HuffPost India, the woman, who calls herself as "an assistant", alleged that Hirani sexually abused her more than once between March and September 2018. She detailed her allegations in an email dated November 3, 2018, to Hirani's longtime collaborator and "Sanju" co-producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
The woman said that on April 9, 2018, the director first passed a sexually suggestive remark to her and later sexually assaulted her at his home office. "I remember forming these words on my lips - 'Sir, This is wrong. Because of this power structure. You being the absolute power and me being a mere assistant, a nobody - I will never be able to express myself to you'," she wrote of the April 9 incident in the email to Chopra, as quoted by HuffPost India.
The woman said that Hirani was a father figure for her. "My mind, body and heart were grossly violated that night and for the next 6 months," the email read. PTI
