Vikas Bahl sent show-cause notice by Indian Film & Television Directors' Association following sexual harassment allegations

Following allegations against filmmaker Vikas Bahl’s inappropriate sexual behaviour and alleged sexual molestation attempts on a colleague from Phantom Films, the Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association has sent a show-cause notice to the Queen director seeking his response to these allegations. The notice added that in case Bahl was unable to revert to the notice within a week’s time, his membership in the IFTDA will be terminated.

Indian Film & Television Directors' Association has issued a show-cause notice to Director #VikasBahl seeking his response to the sexual harassment allegations against him. If he fails to respond in a week's time , his membership of IFTDA will be terminated.

— ANI (@ANI) October 9, 2018

Recently, Phantom Films, a joint production house headed by Vikas Bahl, Anurag Kashyap, Madhu Mantena and Vikramaditya Motwane announced news of its dissolution after the survivor came out with a detailed account of the harassment she had faced under Bahl for almost two years. The woman further added that despite notifying Kashyap and the production house as a whole, Kashyap personally did not do anything to remove Bahl from the production house. Calling the dissolution a “pre-emptive measure”, the woman had even expressed regret for the people who lost their jobs in Phantom and had nothing to do with the issue. Director Anurag Kashyap corroborated each of the survivor’s statements claiming that since a legal action of dropping Bahl from Phantom could not take place, they had disassociated themselves from him by disallowing him within the office premises.