Me Too: Akshay Kumar cancels Housefull 4 shoot after Twinkle Khanna seeks 'firm stance'

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has cancelled the shoot of Housefull 4, as his co-actor Nana Patekar and the director Sajid Khan have been accused of sexual harassment. On October 10, Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao backed out from producing the T-Series film on Gulshan Kumar, titled Mogul, because the director Subhash Kapoor had been accused of attempted rape by actress Geetika Tyagi.

Akshay Kumar tweeted that he's just back in the country and reading all the news has been "very disturbing" for him, urging the producers of Housefull 4 to cancel the shoot until further investigation.

Firmly, Akshay Kumar says, "I will not work with any proven offenders". This statement by Akshay Kumar comes after his wife Twinkle Khanna on October 11 tweeted, "Appalled hearing multiple incidents of harassment and it is truly horrific to hear what these women have been through. Everyone involved in Housefull needs to take a firm stance on this issue. This cannot go on."

Read the full statement of Akshay Kumar on Me Too here:

Read the tweet of Twinkle Khanna on Me Too:

Amid all this, director Sajid Khan himself stepped down from Housefull 4. He said in a statement on Twitter, "In the wake of the allegations against me and the pressure being put on my family, my producer and the stars of my film Housefull 4, I must take the moral responsibility of stepping down from my directorial post. Till the time I can allay the allegations and prove the truth... I request my friends in the media to kindly not pass the judgment till the truth is out."

Those who have accused Sajid Khan of sexual misconduct include actress Rachel White, assistant director Saloni Chopra and journalist Karishma Upadhyay.

Nana Patekar has been accused of sexual harassment by actress Tanushree Dutta, who revealed her ordeal in an interview to Zoom at the end of September 2018. Tanushree Dutta had spoken about it when it happened 10 years ago, but at that time, too, no action was taken.

The incident happened on the sets of the 2008 film Horn Ok Pleasss. Nana Patekar was not behaving appropiately with her and also asked choreographer Ganesh Acharya to include a lewd dance step in a song with Tanushree, claims the actress.

Tanushree Dutta further revealed how her family was harassed by the people of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in 2008, and these very people have now threatened the actress of violence if she were to enter Salman Khan's show Bigg Boss 12 as a contestant.

Tanushree Dutta has filed a police complaint and a fresh first information report (FIR) with the Mumbai Police.

The Me Too wave has hit India and every day, new people from Bollywood, TV or the media are being named for sexual harassment, the most shocking being actor Alok Nath and director Subhash Ghai being accused of rape.