The television actress Jennifer Mistry Bansiwal has certainly created a storm in the Indian television industry by leveling allegations of sexual harassment against Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’s producer Asit Kumarr Modi, project head Sohail Ramani and executive producer Jatin Bajaj.
All the three persons stated above have not only denied the allegations but they have also accused Jennifer Mistry of bad behaviour and indiscipline on the sets and some online users have also questioned as to why she was silent for so many years. Jennifer is known for playing the role of Mrs. Roshan Sodhi in the serial and she has been associated with TMKOC for the last 15 years.
Jennifer has stated in an interview that Asit Kumarr Modi has passed many sexual remarks on her; he has used the word “sexy” for her and also talked about her lips.
Jennifer adds that the whole team of TMKOC is working like bonded labour and in the interview, she narrated an incident as per which Sohail Ramani wasn’t making a week’s payment. She said,
“I didn’t say anything but later, I realised that he was taking revenge for the passport incident where I had to take 3 hours leave to go to the passport office. Back then I’d warned him to talk to a woman respectfully. For this, he cut my half day and stopped my payment. His ego trip was on.
There have been many similar incidents, one of them was, my younger brother died 8 months ago, he was the closest to me on earth. My maternal family isn’t financially sound. My mother is very old, my sister is mentally retarded, my cousin is a 39-year-old widow and her mother has been paralysed for the past 22 years.”
Jennifer also talked about how Sohail Ramani taunted her for the payment and she further claimed that other than 2-4 actors, all the other actors get mentally tortured. In her words,
“My sister-in-law came to know eight days after my brother’s demise that she was pregnant. I just casually told these things to Asit ji, and he asked Sohail, ‘For how many days did she not come to work due to her brother’s demise?’ Sohail said ‘7 days’ and Asit asked him to make payment for these 7 days.
I touched Asit ji’s feet because my entire bank account was exhausted from the medical expenses. I thanked him a lot but Sohail taunted me for paying those 7 days’ money. He said, ‘Uska bhai mara hai na, paise humne diye hain. Production incurred losses but gave money to her.’ I even have witnesses to that who were standing and watching this.
They covered this by calling me only for 5 days in November. Such similar incidents have happened numerous times, one can’t even imagine. Except for the 2-4 main actors, this mental torture happens with everyone else on the set but no one will speak because they are working. Even I was under pressure for the past so many years. People are asking me, why did I raise my voice after 15 years. I gathered the courage now and that’s why I told now.”
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