Anurag Kashyap steps down as MAMI board member; tweets, 'I feel like just apologising for being a man'

After being named as an alleged accomplice in the Vikas Bahl sexual harassment row, Anurag Kashyap, stepped down from his duties as the board member of the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI), according to his tweets. The director and producer had been on the board of MAMI since its inception.

In the light of the current events , I have decided to step back from my duties as a board member from MAMI until the shadow of doubt of our alleged complicitness in silence and not doing anything about it , is cleared.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

After this announcement, the filmmaker also posted several tweets in light of recent events.

On the other hand I vehemently deny to have stayed silent on the issue & not doing anything about it for years. Can’t explain further to people who don’t understand due process, legalities. Have been resilient through all accusations , keep flinging them my way.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

The accused was named and shamed a long time back. For people who don’t read the details & only the headlines, I have no response. A lot of women work with me and have been around , I am answerable to them & they stand witness to our actions &our struggle to do the right thing.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

Let the purging continue .. it’s as good a time as any for all of us to introspect , look into ourselves and see how we all have been complicit in so much,with our silence, forced by fear of consequence or by choice.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

In more than a year I have questioned myself a lot, reflected on every single date I went to, every interaction of mine with the opposite sex, every encounter all that I could recall.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

And my greatest and simplest learning is that the line of consent is not just defined by “No” , most times it’s before that “No” is uttered. And the line of consent depends on the person that owns the consent. It varies from person to person.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

And my greatest and simplest learning is that the line of consent is not just defined by “No” , most times it’s before that “No” is uttered. And the line of consent depends on the person that owns the consent. It varies from person to person.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

It’s our conditioning, even for the most woke people. Most of us are still learning , everyone who claims to know what it means , and I talk about us men , we really don’t know . None of us know . It can’t and should not be defined so simply.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

It begins with respecting the individuality and acknowledging the ownership the other has over herself, and continuing awareness of it. My mind has been restless over many day/nights &more I read everyone’s accounts , it keeps adding to it.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

I feel like just apologising for being a man. I use to feel I have come a long way from growing up in a smalltown &today I feel like somehow I am still there. There is so much I really don’t see & also see others around me pretending to see & I feel ,”inko bhi kahan dikhta hai”

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

I was lucky to have had women who slapped me from time to time to turn that boy who at 18 told the girl in his class “ladkiyon ko yeh nahin karna chahiye “ to whoever I have become today.But I also wonder ,why & when did they stopped slapping me and thought it’s enough. It isn’t.

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018

Bahl, who stands accused of sexually harassing a former Phantom employee, has issued a legal notice to the founders of Phantom Films Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, stating that both filmmakers had used MeToo as an opportunity to defame him. The notice also said that Kashyap bribed another employee of Phantom to make these allegations against Bahl and that there was no personal agenda behind it.

In a statement released by the director and producer on 7 October, Kashyap said that he was bound by the studio’s contract which had prevented him from removing Bahl from his position at Phantom over accusations of sexual harassment and added that at the time the woman had refused to go public with her charges.

However, following the turn of events, the production house found jointly by Kashyap, Bahl, Motwane and Madhu Mantena announced news of its dissolution as the survivor came out with the account of the harassment she suffered under Bahl for nearly two years. Kashyap was also accused by the survivor of not taking adequate action against Bahl despite being personally aware of the incident.