Swastika Mukherjee withdraws from 'Shibpur' trailer launch amid harassment incident
The trailer for Arindam Bhattacharya's highly-anticipated political thriller, Shibpur, was released on Tuesday. However, instead of the trailer getting attention, it was Swastika Mukherjee's Facebook post, stating why she hadn't attended the event, that attracted eyeballs. In March, Mukherjee filed a complaint against the film's producer, Sandeep Sarkar—accusing him of possessing morphed photos of her and allegedly threatening to leak those on adult websites.
'Even if I was in city, I wouldn't have attended'
Earlier, the actor announced that she won't be a part of her upcoming film's promotional events. Sticking to her word, she didn't attend the trailer launch event, and taking to Facebook shared a post that read, "I won't be attending. I am not in Kolkata but even if I was in the city I would not have attended. Anyone telling you otherwise is lying."
'Sexual harassment isn't a joke…,' Mukherjee stated in her post
"Sexual harassment is not a joke and there is no forgiveness for it and neither is there any redemption," Mukherjee stated in her above-mentioned post. It further read, "The producers may think all is chill and cool but it is not. It will never be! But Shibpur is my film and I will definitely share the trailer with my followers and fans. Thank you."
Mukherjee claimed that Sarkar 'suddenly started sending her threatening emails'
While narrating the harassment incident to OTT Play, Mukherjee claimed she wasn't introduced to Sarkar, and it was co-producer Ajanta Sinha Roy who communicated with her. "Suddenly, Sarkar started sending me threatening emails, and claimed that he was an American citizen and that if I didn't cooperate he would get in touch with the US Consulate so that I never get a US visa."
Sarkar's name was scrapped from the credit list of film
Post the email incident, the actor—who appeared in Qala recently—filed a complaint at Golf Green Police Station, and even at the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA), along with scanned copies of the mail. When things escalated, the name of co-producer Sarkar was reportedly scrapped from the credit list of Shibpur. Speaking about the film, Shibpur also stars Parambrata Chatterjee and Rajatava Dutta.
