The “Me Too” movement was started in 2006 by Tarana Burke, a social activist and sexual harassment survivor, on the Myspace social network to promote “empowerment through empathy” among women who have been sexually abused. The movement gained widespread attention and started spreading as a hashtag on social media in October 2017 after The New York Times and The New Yorker reported that dozens of women accused Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse over a period of at least thirty years. Following widespread media coverage and discussion of sexual harassment, several sexual assault and sexual harassment survivors, buoyed by the movement, came forward to share their stories leading to the firings and resignations of several prominent personalities in Hollywood. In the court trial that followed, Mr. Weinstein was convicted of rape and other offenses, and sentenced to 23 years of imprisonment in March 2020.

In addition to powerful people losing their jobs and careers, the “Me Too” movement has also led to reforms in the laws associated with sexual harassment at workplaces. Some states in USA banned non-disclosure agreements in incidents related to sexual harassment, introduced more protection for workers and a group of women in Hollywood set up the Time’s Up Defense Fund to help survivors pursue possible legal action.

In India, although there have been occasional reports of sexual harassment and exploitation in the film industry for a while, the “Me Too” movement gained prominence after actress Tanushree Dutta, in September 2018, accused actor Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of the 2009 movie “Horn Ok Please”. Dutta had first made the allegations against Patekar in 2008, filing a complaint with the trade union, but no action was taken. The actress repeated the allegation in an interview in 2013 but was again largely discredited. When Tanushree Dutta raised this a third time in the wake of the “Me Too” movement in Hollywood, her remarks gained widespread media coverage and the leader of the trade union apologised to Ms. Dutta for not addressing her complaint back in 2008 and added that the case couldn’t be reopened as it was more than three years old. A fresh complaint was registered at Mumbai police station in October 2018, and following an investigation, Mr. Patekar was cleared of the sexual harassment charges by the police in June 2019. The final report shared by the Mumbai police said that the complaint filed by Ms. Dutta could be “malicious” and “out of revenge”.

The widespread media coverage of Ms. Dutta case led several actresses to come forward to share their own harrowing accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault by prominent Indian film industry personalities.

In October 2018, several Bollywood actresses accused filmmaker Sajid Khan of sexual misconduct. The director’s trade union said Mr. Khan “brought disrepute to Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association” and suspended the disgraced filmmaker for one year.

As the movement spread down south, Kannada actress Shruti Hariharan accused actor Arjun Sarja of touching her inappropriately during the filming of Kannada-Tamil bilingual “Vismaya/Nibunan” in 2016. Mr. Sarja denied the allegations and responded with a 5 crore Indian rupees (£500,000) defamation lawsuit. Ms. Hariharan has stated that her film offers have dried up ever since she spoke out whilst Mr. Sarja on the other hand continues to get movie projects in Tamil and Malayalam. Talking about the defamation suit, Ms. Hariharan’s lawyer  Jayna Kothari said Mr. Sarja was uninterested in pursuing the defamation case and he had filed it mainly to cause “media hype” and “intimidate her into silence”.

#metoo #comingout against all odds. Inspite of the all the comments, backlash and misogyny that will follow, I share my experiences below cos this is about a larger change! Bring it on ! #Speakup men and women . It's time. pic.twitter.com/xzjA8EnGjR

— sruthihariharan (@sruthihariharan) October 20, 2018

In the same month, popular singer Chinmayi Sripada posted a series of tweets accusing veteran Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu of making sexual advances towards her. Chinmayi alleged that the lyricist threatened to end her career if she did not “co-operate”. Ms. Sripada in an interview in June 2020 remarked that the Tamil media has failed to grill Vairamuthu the way it has scrutinised his victims. In a Facebook post in July 2020, Chinmayi wrote that its been two years since she and 12 other women had complained about Vairamuthu, however “not a single question has been raised by the mainstream Tamil media on the allegations.”

As the movement spread from films to television industry, popular Hindi television actor Alok Nath, who is known to advocate “sanskar” (ethics and moral behaviour) and is a subject of several memes on this topic, was accused of rape by TV producer Vinta Nanda who worked with Mr. Nath in the mid-90s. Subsequently, several actresses have confirmed that they knew about Mr. Nath’s predatory behaviour and they themselves have been his victims. Later that month, Ms. Nanda filed a complaint against Nath in a Mumbai police station, the same place where Tanushree Dutta had filed a report against Nana Patekar. In August 2019, India Today reported that the case against Mr. Nath was closed due to “lack of evidence”. Ms. Nanda remarked in September 2020 that “there is a danger that the movement is getting derailed“

In October 2018, several women reported singer and music composer Anu Malik for sexual harassment. Following those allegations, Mr. Malik was sacked from the judging panel of popular reality TV show “Indian Idol”. However, the singer returned to “Indian Idol” in 2019 and is set to appear in the reality show “Big Boss” in 2020, hosted by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan.

In the following months, several high-profile personalities like filmmaker Vikas Bahl, casting director Mukesh Chabbra and director Rajkumar Hirani have also been accused of inappropriate behaviour.

Phantom films, the production company that Vikas Bahl had co-founded, was disbanded by the other three co-founders (Anurag Kashyap, Madhu Mantena, Vikramaditya Motwane) in response to the allegations and Mr. Bahl’s name was briefly dropped from the film “Super 30” that he had been directing, whilst an internal enquiry was carried out by Phantom Films’ Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), which cleared him of all the charges and his name was reinstated in the film.

Similarly, Fox Star Studios temporarily suspended Mr. Chabbra from directing the Hindi-remake of “The Fault in our Stars” whilst the company continued its internal inquiry into the allegations, and reinstated him back on the sets after clearing him of all the charges.

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani denied the sexual assault allegations against him and called them “false, malicious and mischievous story being spread with the sole intention of destroying my reputation”.

Meanwhile in the state of Kerala, the “Me Too” movement threw spotlight on a criminal case involving a senior actor Dileep, who was accused of hiring thugs to abduct an actress in February 2017. In October 2018, Dileep was removed from the trade union where he held a key post.

What has changed and what hasn’t?

The “Me Too” movement has increased awareness of sexual harassment at the workplace and has encouraged more women to speak up, however there have been no reforms made by production companies or the trade unions to prevent such incidents from happening at the workplace or provide more support to the workers.

Most of the “Me Too” survivors have been and still are subjected to abuse and trolling on social media by supporters of the men that have accused of sexual harassment. They have also been threatened with defamation suits and don’t have the resources or financial backing of the likes of “Time’s up Defense Fund” to fight their cases in the court. Moreover it is also a well-known fact that court cases in India are an extremely time-consuming affair with more than 93% of rape cases still awaiting trial as of 2016 and come with huge financial and emotional costs. With sexual harassment being difficult to prove, it may take years for the survivor to get justice and possibly depriving them of work opportunities during the process.

On the positive side, the allegations that have been made as part of the “Me Too” movement were all attributed to incidents before October 2018 and no one has reported any new allegations that have happened after October 2018, indicating that movement may have had a deterrent effect on would-be sexual predators.

Me too India – a timeline of events

Date	Allegations	Aftermaths
Oct 2018	Actress Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of inapppropiate behaviour on the sets of the 2009 movie “Horn Ok Please”.	Nana Patekar was cleared of the sexual harassment charges by the police in June 2019. The final report shared by the Mumbai police said that the complaint filed by Ms. Dutta could be “malicious” and “out of revenge”.
Oct 2018	Sangeeta Bhatt accused several top Kannada several directors, producers, actors and other technicians of inappropriate behaviour	The actress did not name anyone, however her revelations have encouraged other actresses to speak up about their own experiences in the industry.
Oct 2018	Actress Yashika said a prominent director, who is considered a father figure and a big star in the Tamil film industry, had told her “if I wanted to do this role, I had to sleep with him”	The actress did not name the director and therefore no further action was pursued.
Oct 2018	Popular singer Chinmayi Sripada posted a series of tweets accusing veteran Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu of making sexual advances . Chinmayi alleged that the lyricist threatened to end her career if she did not “co-operate”. Several anonymous women had also made similar claims against the lyricist.	Vairamuthu denied the allegations and has maintained a stoic silence on this topic ever since the allegations surfaced. In December 2019, director Mani Ratnam and composer A.R. Rahman announced their collaboration with Vairmuthu on a new film called “Ponniyan Selvan”, however they were forced to disassociate themselves with the lyricist after backlash.
Oct 2018	Kannada actress Shruti Hariharan accused actor Arjun Sarja of touching her inappropriately during the filming of Kannada-Tamil bilingual “Vismaya/Nibunan” in 2016.	Mr. Sarja denied the allegations and responded with a 5 crore Indian rupees (£500,000) defamation lawsuit, but hasn’t followed it up since. Ms. Hariharan has stated that her film offers have dried up ever since she spoke out whilst Mr. Sarja on the other hand continues to get movie projects in Tamil and Malayalam.
Oct 2018	Kannada actress Actress Sanjjanaa Galrani accused director Ravi Srivatsa of harassment during the filming of “Ganda Hendathi”, the Kannada remake of Hindi film “Murder” in 2006	Mr. Srivatsa rejected the charge and accused Galrani of “making baseless allegations”. Ms. Galrani was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Sep 2020 on charges of drugs trafficking.
Oct 2018	Independent filmmaker Leena Manimekalai also accused filmmaker Susi Ganesan of sexual misconduct in 2005, following up on her Facebook post from March 2017 in which she accused the director but did not name him. Tamil actress Amala Paul lent her support to Ms. Manimekalai and accused Susi Ganesan of inappropriate behaviour during the filming of Thiruttu Payale 2 in 2017, thereby “making her experience horrible”.	Susi Ganesan filed a defamation suit against Leena Manimekalai and the case continues to this date with Ms. Manimekalai having attended more than 10 hearings. Mr. Ganesan remains unaffected on the work front and is helming the Hindi remake of “Thiruttu Payale 2” starring Urvashi Rautela.
Oct 2018	Singer Sona Mohapatra posted a series of tweets accusing singer Kailash Kher of sexual misconduct.	Kailash Kher has responded that the complaint isn’t authentic as long as the complainant does not take the legal recourse. The singer continues to get work in Tamil and Hindi films. In September 2020, Ms. Mohapatra questioned the silence of Bollywood A-listers on the MeToo movement and claimed, “Not one woman or man stood up to speak any truth”
Oct 2018	Four female singers including Shweta Pandit and Sona Mohapatra accused singer and music composer Anu Malik of sexual harassment.	Anu Malik brushed off the allegations as “false and baseless”. He was later sacked from the judging panel of popular reality TV show “Indian Idol”, where he has been a judge since its launch in 2014. The singer, however, returned to “Indian Idol” in 2019 and is set to appear in the reality show “Big Boss” in October 2020, hosted by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan.
Oct 2018	TV producer Vinta Nanda accused Alok Nath of raping her in the mid-90s and filed a case at a Mumbai police station. Actress Sandya Mridul also accused Mr. Nath of inappropriate behaviour.	Nath denied the claims and sued Vinta Nanda for defamation, demanding a written apology and “1 Rupee” as compensation. In August 2019, India Today reported that the case against Mr. Nath was closed due to “lack of evidence”. Mr. Nath hasn’t taken up any new assignments ever since the allegations surfaced.
Oct 2018	Veteran Bollywood director Subhash Ghai was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a former female employee.	Subhash Ghai denied the allegations and dismissed the “Me Too” movement as a “fashion to malign anyone”.
Oct 2018	Four anonymous actresses levelled sexual harassment charges against Anirban Das Blah, the founder of Kwan Talent Management, one of India’s leading celebrity management companies	Anirban Das Blah was sacked from Kwan immediately after the allegations were reported by Midday. The celebrity manager attempted suicide by trying to jump off a bridge in Mumbai and was rescued by a police patrol team.
Oct 2018	A female crew member accused filmmaker Vikas Bahl of sexual assault during the pre-release promotional tour of their movie, Bombay Velvet in 2015. Following the allegations, “Queen” actress Nayani Dixit also accused Mr. Bahl of inappropriate behaviour.	Phantom films, the production company that Vikas Bahl had co-founded, was disbanded by the other three co-founders (Anurag Kashyap, Madhu Mantena, Vikramaditya Motwane) in response to the allegations and Mr. Bahl’s name was briefly dropped from the film “Super 30” that he had been directing, whilst an internal inquiry was carried out by his own company’s Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), which cleared him of all the charges and his name was reinstated in the film. Mr. Bahl is set to direct Tiger Shroff in a sports drama titled “Ganpat”.
Oct 2018	A number of actresses including Mandana Karimi, Saloni Chopra, Kate Sharma, Rachel White, Simran Suri, Jacqueline Fernandez, Marina Kuwar and Aahana Kumra have accused director Sajid Khan of sexual harrassment and inappropriate behaviour.	The director’s trade union said Sajid Khan “brought disrepute to Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association” and suspended the disgraced filmmaker for one year. Mr. Khan signed up on Instagram in April 2020 and has been active on the platform but has disabled comments on his posts. In September 2020, a model Paula accused Sajid Khan of asking her to strip to get a role in his 2010 film “Housefull”
Oct 2018	Actress Mandana Karimi accused director Umesh Ghadge of sexual harassment on the sets of ‘Kya Kool Hain Hum 3’ in 2015.	The director has not responded to the allegations and hasn’t been credited with any work since.
Oct 2018	An anonymous actress accused director Luv Ranjan of inappropriate behaviour saying the director had asked her to strip down to her undergarments during an audition in 2010.	Luv Ranjan denied the claims. Nushrat Bharucha, who collaborated with the director in 4 of his films, came to his defence said that she “feels safe, protected, respected and cared for” when she worked with Mr. Ranjan. The filmmaker hasn’t directed any new films ever since the allegations surfaced but continues to produce Hindi films.
Jan 2019	A former employee of renowned filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani has alleged the director sexually abused her on more than one occasion over a six-month period between March and September 2018.	Responding through his lawyer, Rajkumar Hirani, denied the allegations and called them “mischievous, scandalous, motivated and defamatory”. Mr. Hirani is set to collaborate with Shah Rukh Khan and is also working on three new projects: a Netflix web series and two cricket films.
Sep 2020	Actress Payal Ghosh has accused filmmaker Anurag Kashyap of sexual assault in 2014. In an interview to a TV channel, Ms. Ghosh narrated her ordeal with the filmmaker and alleged that Mr. Kashyap had told her “it was okay” and some of the actresses who worked with him are “just a call away”.	Anurag Kashyap’s first wife Aarti Bajaj, second wife Kalki Koechlin and his colleagues Tapsee Pannu, Swara Bhaskar, Huma Quereshi, Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla, Mahie Gill, Tisca Chopra and Mandini Karimi have all defended the filmmaker with some saying the allegations were a political agenda to malign the filmmaker’s reputation. Mr. Kashyap dismissed the allegations and called them an attempt to silence him from criticizing the government.