Director and screenwriter Abhinav Singh Kashyap took to Facebook on Tuesday to share how actor-director Arbaaz Khan, and family “sabotaged” his career after his directorial Dabangg released in 2010. The film starring Arbaaz and his brother Salman Khan was a massive hit before it turned into a franchise.
Kashyap also mentioned experiencing “gaslighting, exploitation and bullying first hand” in the hands of the Khan family and alleged that it all affected his mental health. In no time, the detailed post caught everyone’s attention.
Coincidently, his personal account comes in the wake of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide, where in he mentioned how this incident “brings to the forefront a much bigger problem of what many of us have been dealing with”.
Sharing his own experience post Dabangg, Kashyap wrote, “The reason I moved out of making Dabangg 2 ten years ago is because Arbaaz, in collusion with Sohail Khan and family, was trying to take control of my career by bullying me. Arbaaz 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…”
Kashyap further wrote when he returned his money Shree Ashtavinayak films and moved to Viacom Pictures, the Khan family did the same thing. “Only this time the sabotager was Sohail 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 filmmaker mentioned he and his family have “been repeatedly threatened”. He revealed of his attempt of filing an FIR with all the proof that includes “threats as texts”, sent to him from several numbers but Police refused to file the FIR and registered “a non-cognizable complaint”.
He wrote, “…the best part is after 10 years, I know who my enemies are. Let it be known that they are Salim Khan, Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan… 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.”
Reacting to the Kashyap’s allegations, Arbaaz told us that he last communicated with Kashyap “in 2012 before starting Dabangg 2”.
He further add, “In fact, we have already taken legal action even before this post; it was after his earlier post (when Kashyap spoke about having differences with Arbaaz and Salmaan and led him to step down from the Dabangg franchise). We have had no communication with Abhinav since we started working on Dabangg 2. We parted ways professionally. Don’t know where all this coming from. We are taking legal action.”
Meanwhile, Abhinav’s brother, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap gave his statement on twitter clarifying why he is refraining from getting involved in this matter. “More than two years ago, Abhinav had told me clearly to stay out of his business and it’s not my place to comment on anything he says or does, (sic)” wrote Anurag.
