New Delhi: Actor Shilpa Shinde has made a startling revelation about her infamous 2016 fallout with the makers of the TV show Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain!, admitting on a podcast that the sexual harassment allegations she levelled against producer Sanjay Kohli were false.
Speaking on the podcast with Bharti Singh and Haarsh Limbachiyaa, Shilpa said she felt cornered during the bitter and drawn-out contractual and legal dispute and that she had “no other option.”
Shilpa confessed that the allegations she made were untrue, saying that the burden of the lie weighed on her for years, acknowledging the damage it caused to the producer’s reputation.
What was the controversy?
Shilpa’s exit from Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain! in 2016 sparked the television industry’s one of the most talked-about disputes. The show had become a big hit and a lot of people credited the success to Shilpa Shinde’s beloved character, Angoori Bhabhi. She became a household name, but only after a year of doing the show, she was at a crossroads with the showmakers.
At the time, she left the hit comedy show amid disagreements over her contract and alleged delays in payment. The show’s producers accused her of breaching professional commitments and issued legal notices demanding that she resume shooting.
The dispute soon escalated into a prolonged legal and public battle. Shilpa levelled several allegations against the show’s producers, including claims of harassment, non-payment of dues, creating a hostile work environment, and attempts to sideline her within the industry. She alleged that she was being pressured into restrictive contractual arrangements, a claim she maintained in the podcast as well.
Shilpa also filed a sexual harassment case against one of the show’s producers, Sanjay Kohli. The makers and the actor reached an out-of-court settlement and all her pending payments were cleared.
However, Shilpa has now revealed that the sexual harassment allegation was false and that she felt she had no other option left during her dispute with the show’s producers.
“Nobody knows this, I am not scared of saying the truth, and I will still say that what I am saying is a big thing that I filed a sexual harassment case against my producer because I had no other way and then it got settled,” Shilpa said.
“Today I can say here that it was a lie. I am confessing it, truly. We reached a settlement and then I received my payment, which was pending for three months, it got cleared,” she added.
Shilpa also said that the relations between her and the makers have improved significantly over the years.
Also read: ‘Ban’ on Ranveer Singh revoked. Film trade body says industry needs actors like him
‘Weaponising the law’
The confession has drawn a lot of backlash, with many on social media saying that such false allegations make it harder for the real victims to be believed.
The NCMIndia Council for Men Affairs, an organisation which works to protect men’s rights, shared the clip from Shilpa’s interview on X, demanding that the actor be arrested for filing a fake sexual harassment case.
Shilpa’s remarks have also elicited strong reactions from actors Pooja Bedi and actor Karan Oberoi.
Bedi, who is a vehement advocate for women and equal gender rights, said a ‘confession’ like Shilpa Shinde’s takes the movement toward gender equality back by several years.
Speaking to Variety, she said, “Any woman who weaponizes laws meant to protect victims, be it for revenge, personal gain, leverage, publicity, or malice, is betraying the very cause those laws were created to serve”.
“False accusations not only destroy innocent lives but also make it harder for genuine survivors to be believed. Such misuse of the law is unacceptable and must carry serious consequences,” she added.
Karan Oberoi, who spent a month in jail in 2019 due to a false charge of sexual harassment, seconded that and said that a wrong ‘MeToo’ accusation damages the movement.
“A false case is more anti-women than anti-men! Because genuine victims suffer on account of it. One false case has the propensity to cast aspersions on a hundred genuine cases,” he said.
“No one should be thrown into jail by any vindictive woman in the future,” he added.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)