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‘Homebound’ the movie by Neeraj Ghaywan that was lauded at the Cannes Film Festival is currently headlining again, but for the contrary reason. The cinematographer of the film Pratik Shah was accused of sexual accusations by women with Shah deleting his instagram account following the publicised accusation.
Pratik Shah has worked in Vikramaditya Motwane’s ‘Jubilee’ and ‘CTRL’ and other independent films too. The publicised accusations were quickly debated as Shah also vanished from the face of the internet with Abhinav Singh, who has helmed short films such as ‘Sita’ and ‘Yatri Kripya Dhyan De’, levelled these allegations against him after receiving testimonies from nearly 20 women.
Abhinav Singh also claimed that he received testimonies from 20+ women and called the cinematographer a ‘predator’. The filmmaker revealed about the testimonies with the women’s identities anonymous.
The Hollywood Reporter also mentioned that this was not the first time Pratik Shah was accused for sexual harassment. Four years ago, Shah was accused by a young cinematographer who got in touch with a senior member in the Indian Women Cinematographers’ Collective (IWCC) to file a complaint against Pratik Shah. The woman claimed that Pratik Shah asked for a nude picture when she reached out to him for work on Instagram, says a report from India Today.
The senior member reached out to Shah through WhatsApp to condemn his behaviour and warned him about the inappropriateness. Shah then apologised for the incident as a one-time mistake.
Pratik Shah is yet to make a statement or comment on the allegations but Dharma Productions later released a statement on the matter saying, “At Dharma Productions, we have zero tolerance policy against inappropriate behaviour and sexual harassment towards any individual working with us in any capacity, and we treat sexual harassment cases very seriously. Mr Pratik Shah was a freelancer on the project Homebound and was working on it for a limited period. His engagement with us has been completed. During this limited period, our internal committee for POSH didn’t receive any complaints against him from any cast and crew on our film Homebound.”
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