Bollywood filmmaker Sajid Khan had been away from the limelight ever since his name cropped up in the 2018 #MeToo movement in India. However, he is now determined to start afresh as one of the contestants on Salman Khan's popular reality show 'Bigg Boss 16'.
From 2018 to 2020, several women including big names from the film industry, had accused Sajid of touching them inappropriately, asking them to strip for roles in his films, and physically and mentally harassing them.
It all started when Saloni Chopra, who worked with Sajid in 2011, put up a post in 2018 claiming that the filmmaker had asked her if she masturbates and "how many times a day".
She had added that he would even call her up at odd hours, and it stopped when she totally distanced herself from him.
She wrote, "He would ask me to touch his d*ck and get irritated with me when I said I didn’t want to. This one time, during a costume trial for a character in the movie he came in to see the girl in the outfit and asked her to lift her skirt and show her ass to him, she looked at me confused and I asked Sajid if it was necessary. She lifted her skirt and he started insulting her telling her she didn’t have any breasts or any ass, how did she think she’d become an actress?"
Saloni's post opened a can of worms for Sajid with multiple women from various fields coming to the forth and sharing their trauma. Actress Rachel White, who starred in the film 'Ungli', shared that the filmmaker had once asked her to "seduce him in 5 minutes" to get a role in a film.
Aspiring actress Simran Suri claimed that Sajid wanted to cast her in 'Himmatwala' for which he had called her to his house. He then asked her to strip and even tried to pull her top when she refused. "He shouted 'I am a director, I will have to see your body'," shared Simran.
Days later, journalist Karishma Upadhyay shared a horrifying encounter with Sajid when he allegedly flashed at her during an interview and "forced his tongue down her throat", before she could push him and run away.
In an interview with a leading publication, actress Aahana Kumra said that Sajid asked her, "Would you have sex with a dog if I gave you Rs 100 crore?"
Then, actress Mandana Karimi revealed that Sajid asked her to "take off her clothes" during a casting meeting at his place and told her that if he likes what he sees, she will get a role in 'Humshakals'.
Days after her father's demise, when Sherlyn Chopra visited Sajid for work, the filmmaker allegedly flashed his private parts at her and even went on to ask her to "feel it".
In 2020, model Dimple Paul put up a post on social media stating how Sajid "spoke dirty" to her when she was just 17, asked her to strip naked, and even tried to touch her, all under the pretext of getting her a role in 'Housefull'.
It did not end there, but in the documentary titled 'Death in Bollywood', Jiah Khan's sister Karishma claimed that Sajid had asked the late actress to "take off top and bra" during a script reading session. Karishma said, "She came home and cried. She said, 'I have a contract, so if I leave, they can sue me and slander my name. If I stay, then I am sexually harassed'."
The filmmaker did not just stop there, but he even went on to make advances at Karishma, but was stopped by Jiah.
While Sajid never addressed any of the accusations levelled against him, he stayed away from the public eye for quite some time, until recently, when he announced his return to filmmaking with the film '100%'.
'100%' stars John Abraham, Shehnaaz Gill, Riteish Deshmukh and Nora Fatehi in lead roles.
