Senior actor Alok Nath — known for his "sanskaari" on-screen image – faced the heat on Tuesday, after veteran writer-producer of yesteryear popular television show ‘Tara’ Vinta Nanda went to town accusing him of sexually violating her 19 years ago and Cine & TV Artists Association (CINTAA) announcing that it would send him a show-cause notice.
After Nanda wrote a long, heart-wrenching Facebook post exposing the senior actor, CINTAA’s general secretary and spokesperson Sushant Singh said that a show-cause notice would be sent to Alok Nath. He urged Nanda to file a complaint against "this vile creature" and assured her of his organisation’s support.
“Dear @vintananda I am so so sorry. As @CintaaOfficial a show-cause notice will be sent to @aloknath first thing in the mrng, why he shudnt b expld. Unfortunately we’ve to follow the due process. I urge u to file a complaint against this vile creature, we extend u full support,” Singh tweeted from his personal account.
In her Facebook post, Nanda wrote: "I have waited for this moment to come for 19 years," and indirectly described Alok Nath as "predator in question" and "the actor par excellence who is known as the most 'sanskaari' (cultured) person in the film and television industry".
In her lengthy FB post, Nanda tore into Alok Nath, by saying: "He was an alcoholic, shameless and obnoxious but he was also the television star of that decade, so not only was he forgiven for all his bad behaviour, many of the guys would also egg him on to be his worst". She alleged that the actor even harassed the show's lead actress who was not interested in him.
Dwelling upon the "worst" that happened to her 19 years ago, Nanda recalled the events that followed after she had left a party at Alok Nath’s house at 2 am. She said her drinks had been mixed.
"I started to walk home on the empty streets... Midway I was accosted by this man who was driving his own car and he asked me to sit in it and said he would drop me home. I trusted him and sat in his car.
"I have faint memory after that. I can remember more liquor being poured into my mouth and I remember being violated endlessly. When I woke up the next afternoon, I was in pain. I hadn't just been raped, I was taken to my own house and had been brutalised.
"I couldn't get up for my bed. I told some of my friends but everybody advised me to forget about it and move on,” she wrote. Later, she got a job to write and direct a series for Plus Channel, and again her paths crossed with Alok Nath.
"The man found his way through the casting route and became one of the lead actors on the show. He created an environment in which I was made to feel threatened, so I asked the producers to release me from directing the series because I didn't want to be around where he was. "I continued to write the show," she wrote.
She said that the "most difficult part" and the "main reason" why Nanda took so long to come out with the truth was because while she was working on this new series, she says, "he asked me to come to his house again and I went to allow him to violate me".
"I needed the job and didn't want to leave it as I needed the money. It was after this that I quit,” she said, as she urged people "who have suffered at the hands of predators, to come out and say it aloud".
“Don't hold yourselves back. This is a moment for change, so your silence will only hold barriers to its evolution. Speak out. Shout out from the top of the roof,” she wrote. Meanwhile, actor Alok Nath dismissed Nanda’s charge against him as "absurd" as he "made her what she is".
“Kuch to log kahenge (People will say something). Neither I am denying this nor do I agree with it. It (rape) must have happened, but someone else would have done it. Well, I do not want to talk much about it. As for the matter, if it has come out, it will be stretched,” Alok Nath told ABP News.