'Without warning, he penetrated me with his fingers' - Student accuses theatre prof Sudipto Chatterjee of rape

Renowned performance scholar actor, poet and Artistic Director of Kolkata-based theatre group 'Spectators', Sudipto Chatterjee has been accused of rape and sexual assault by some of his students.

One aspiring actress named Angela Mondal made a Facebook post accusing Sudipto of raping her on pretext of teaching her the nuances of the art.

In the post, the girl narrated how Sudipto allegedly raped her, and left her traumatised. She also stated that although Sudipto had resigned from the institution after she had made an official complaint, she believes this is not the justice she deserves.

Official #MeToo Twitter handle also shared the post, demanding further action against the popular personality. Meanwhile, two other women have also come up with similar allegations of molestation against the film-maker on social media.

Read Angela's full post below:

I have finally gathered enough courage to come out with the incidents that have happened with me. I have faced sexual abuse of the highest order by the renowned Theatre personality Prof. Sudipto Chatterjee, who also happened to be the faculty of the institution I am enrolled with.

I auditioned for a play called Lysistrata, which happened to be an in house production of the institute, whereupon I was selected by Sudipto Chatterjee for the lead role of his own production 'Bhadroja'.

After three shows of Bhadroja, he suddenly realized that a scene wasn't working and wanted to help me out with that. He called me to his place to teach me diaphragm breathing and psycho-physical approach to acting.

He spoke to me about the traumas of rape as the scene was of a similar nature, and took me to my utmost state of vulnerability. He held me from behind to teach diaphragm breathing and explained it wasn't sexual, because if that had been the case then I would've felt his hardness.

Then he asked me to lie down on the bed with my eyes closed and deliver the dialogues of the above mentioned scene. He started touching me and asked me to respond to his touch while delivering the dialogues. Then without a warning, he penetrated me with his fingers and asked me to spurt out the dialogues louder and louder.

I had became a corpse , completely non-functional. The moment I tightened my body and my voice broke, because of the suppressed cry, he withdrew. He distanced himself and explained how the process is complete and I've reached the emotional and mental state that was needed for the scene.

He had tried something similar on another occasion, but this time I could vocalize my 'NO', so he stopped.

I lived in denial, bottled up the trauma, and continued to work for the production ' Bhadroja ', avoiding him as much as I could. I took time to deal with my mental health and finally decided to come out with this incident.

When I finally confronted Sudipto Chatterjee with a written statement on whatsapp, he seenzoned and blocked me, while his wife Annesha Chakroborty, who was aware of the entire incident since the beginning, asked me to forget about it because exposing this allegations would destroy their relationship.
I had informed few other members of Sudipto Chatterjee's theatre group 'Spectactors', they couldn't take any measures against him due to his power and position however showed empathy through personal chats.

I filed an official complaint with the institution against this rapist on Monday (14th of October, 2019). Today, (i.e, Wednesday, 16th of October, 2019), I was called for a meeting at the college and during the same meeting the authority had informed me that Sudipto Chatterjee had 'apparently' submitted his resignation yesterday (i.e, Tuesday, 15th of October, 2019).

This isn't the justice I deserve.

It is an open secret in the circuit, that Sudipto Chatterjee, has been a serial sexual molester. There have been too many victims, however, he always had gotten away with this because the survivors couldn't come out with their traumatic experiences.

I am voicing out my experience on behalf of the women who have been at the receiving end of such violence, but couldn't. It is important that the people know that there is rapist roaming free in the eminent cultural circle, so that they may take necessary steps to exclude Sudipto Chatterjee from whatsoever association.
Because I wasn't his first prey and neither will I be his last. We will have to stop him.

Below are the posts from other two women: