#MeToo hits Sanskari Babuji Alok Nath, accused of rape and sexual harassment by TV show 'Tara' producer

While the controversy surrounding Tanushree Dutta's allegations of sexual harassment against veretan actor Nana Patekar seems to be gaining momentum, it has also given courage to a number of women from all fields to come out and share their personal ordeal and such incidents of being sexually harassed by men. The most recent one to join the bandwagon is noted TV writer, producer and director Vinita Nanda, who has now come out with an elaborate account of not just being harassed by the male lead actor of her yesteryear hit show Tara, but also being allegedly raped by him. Though, she hasn't named the actor directly, all the references that she has used to describe him ('sanskaari' actor among others) seem to be clearly pointing towards our very own sanskaari babuji Alok Nath. 

Vinita took to her Facebook page to share the detailed account of what she had to go through about two decades back. She recalls that the makers of the show Tara decided to fire the actor in question, after getting to know that he was "after my lead girl" who was not interested in him. She reveals that the "lead female actor was being harassed by him" and when she complained to the producers they decided to let him go. 

As per Vinita's Facebook post, the day when they had to take his last shot, the actor "...came drunk on our sets. He continued to drink till the time he was called for the shot. When the moment came and the camera rolled, he felt up our female lead and very viciously. My lead actress slapped him. We asked him to leave the sets and told him that he was not going to be on the show any longer."

Vinita further recalls how after a few changes in the show and the management, she was told to shut shop, and all her four successful shows were made to shut down. She then expatiated on the horrors that awaited her post that. 

"I was invited to a party to this mans house, his wife, my best friend was out of town. It was usual for our group of friends from theatre to meet regularly so there was nothing unusual about my going to the party. As the evening flowed, my drinks were mixed and I began to feel strange. Then at around 2am I left his house. Nobody followed me or offered to drop me home, which was what was rather unusual.All I knew at the time was that I had to get home. I could sense it wouldn't be right for me to stay thee any longer. I started to walk home on the empty streets although the distance to my own house was long. Midway I was accosted by this man who was driving his own car and he asked me to sit in it and said he would drop me home. I trusted him and sat in his car. I have faint memory after that. I can remember more liquor being poured into my mouth and I remember being violated endlessly."

She added, "When I woke up the next afternoon, I was in pain. I hadn't just been raped, I was taken to my own house and had been brutalised. I couldn't get up for my bed (sic)."

Vinita further reveals that though her company had shut down, she managed to get a job to write and direct a series but this actor found his way in it through the casting route and became one of the leads of the show. "He created an environment in which I was made to feel threatened" 

She goes on to reveal the main reason why she "took so long to come out with the truth". She explained, "While I was working on this new series, he asked me to come to his house again and I went to allow him to violate me. I needed the job and didn't want to leave it as I needed the money. It was after this that I quit."

Sharing her trauma, she wrote, "I was compeltely shattered by then. It was a nervous breakdown I was going through, but I was trying to be brave." She wrote that she's sharing her story now so that others who've suffered at the hands of predators in silence should not hold themselves back and "come out and say it aloud". 

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She ends the post writing, "Irony is that the man, the predator in question here is the actor par excellence who is known as the most #Sanskaari (Cultered) person in the film and television industry".

The sanskaari actor is now being mercilessly trolled on Twitter, with netizens calling him 'rapist', Some even tagged the Mumbai police to get him arrested.