Two weeks ahead of the 20th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on Tuesday has temporarily stepped down as the board member of the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI).
Four days ago, Mr. Kashyap and filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane, who is also a board member of MAMI, had dissolved their production house, Phantom Films amid #MeToo movement in India. Quick on the heels of the announcement of dissolution came a report in HuffPost India detailing the sexual assault accusations against Vikas Bahl, co-member of Phantom Films.
In a series of apologetic tweets, Mr. Kashyap said: “In the light of the current events, I have decided to step back from my duties as a board member from MAMI until the shadow of doubt of our alleged complicitness in silence and not doing anything about it is cleared.” The 46-year-old filmmaker had shared a two-page long statement on Sunday denying accusations of being an accomplice in enabling Vikas Bahl, who was accused of sexual assault by a former Phantom employee. He claimed that he tried to address the issue as best as he could within the limitations.
The 20th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star is scheduled to take place from October 25 to November 1. Mr. Kashyap’s film Mukkabaaz was the opening film at the festival last year.
