Sushant Singh Rajput’s death is indeed a personal loss and the world is lamenting over it. However, his death has given a platform to a lot of actors and directors to raise their voice against nepotism in Bollywood. Such is the case with Dabbang director, Abhinav Singh Kashyap, who recently took a swipe at Salman Khan his family.
A day after the shocking death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead at his Mumbai’s residence on Sunday, director Abhinav Singh Kashyap appealed to the government to launch a detailed investigation and shared a hard-hitting Facebook post about his own experience of bullying in the Bollywood industry.
‘Dabangg’ director wrote, “My experience is no different. I have experienced exploitation and bullying first hand.”
He further said, “Arbaaz Khan on Dabangg and ever since. So here is my story 10 years after Dabangg. The reason I moved out of making Dabangg 2 ten years ago is that Arbaaz Khan in collusion with Sohail Khan and family was trying to take control of my career by bullying me. because Arbaaz Khan sabotaged my second project with Shree Ashtavinayak Films that I was signed up with by personally calling their head Mr. Raj Mehta and threatening him with dire consequences if they made a film with me.
I had to return the signing money to Shree Ashtavinayak films and moved to Viacom Pictures. They did the same thing. Only this time the sabotager was Sohail Khan and he intimidated the then Viacom CEO Vikram Malhotra. My project was sabotaged and I was made to return my signing fee of Rupees 7 Crores plus interest of Ninety odd lacs. It’s only then that Reliance Entertainment came to my rescue and we forged an enduring partnership for my film Besharam.”
The ‘Yuva’ director added, “But to behold… Mr. Salman Khan and his family sabotaged the release of the film and got their PROs to run a sustained negative smear campaign against me and my film Besharam before release. This scared the distributors from buying my film. Reliance Entertainment and I were capable and courageous enough to release the film ourselves but the battle had just begun.
My enemies, which there were many ran a sustained negative Trolling and badmouthing campaign against the film till the Box Office of my film collapsed. But to their horror, Besharam had still netted 58 crores before it went out of theatres.”
“So they fought on… They sabotaged the Satellite release of the film that was pre-sold to Mr Jayanti Lal Gada who was the main aggregator for Zee Telefilms those days. With Reliance’s goodwill, they were able to re-negotiate the satellite rights sale with Gada for a much lesser price,” he further said.
Talking about his projects and how they were affected, Kashyap added, “Over the next few years, all my projects and creative endeavors have been sabotaged and I have been repeatedly threatened with life and rape threats given to/for the female members of my family. The sustained gaslighting and bullying destroyed my mental health and that of my family and led to my divorce and breaking up of my family in 2017.
They erred and sent some of these threats as texts, sent to me as SMS from several numbers. Armed with evidence, I went to the police in 2017 to file an FIR which they refused to register but registered a non-cognizable complaint. When the threats continued, I forced the police to trace the numbers but they couldn’t be traced back to Sohail Khan (the suspected sender). My complaint remains open to date and I still have all the evidence.”
The director further wrote, “My enemies are sharp, cunning and always attack me from the back and stay Hidden. But the best part is after 10 Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan years, I know who my enemies are. Let it be known that they are Salim Khan, Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan for. There are many other small fry’s but Salman Khan’s family is the head of this venomous serpent.
They use a clever mix of their ill-gotten money, political clout, and connections with the underworld to intimidate anyone and everyone. Unfortunately, truth is on my side and I am not going to give up like Sushant Singh Rajput. I refuse to cow down and will fight on till I see the end of either them or me. Enough tolerance. It’s time to fight back.”
