Chocolate asst dir Sattyajit Gazmer: Tanushree Dutta falsely accused Vivek Agnihotri

Mumbai: Another day, another plot twist added to Tanushree Dutta's sexual harassment allegations against actor Nana Patekar, Vivek Agnihotri and choreographer Ganesh Acharya. 

This time, Sattyajit Gazmer, who was assisting director Vivek Agnihotri on the sets of Chocolate, has come forward to give his account of what happened. Dutta had alleged that her Chocolate director Agnihotri had asked her to strip and dance. In a long Facebook post, Gazmer gave a detailed account of the happenings and refuted the allegations considering he was actively involved in the direction. He wrote, "Anyone who has worked with Vivek Ji knows that he doesn’t give directions directly, it’s always through the associate or the 1st AD. I have always said Action, Cut etc. on the sets. Since I understand beats very well on all dance sequences I am on the set telling actors what to do. This can be checked with anyone from Anil Kapur to John Abraham." 

Meanwhile, Vivek’s counsel has also given out a press statement alleging defamation, saying “The allegations levelled against my client Mr Vivek Agnihotri by Ms Tanushree Dutta for misbehaviour and/or harassment are absolutely false, frivolous and vexatious. These allegations are deliberate and have been borne with an intent to attract publicity and wreak personal vendetta against my client with mala-fide intentions. On the instruction of my client, we have served a legal notice to initiate defamation action against her and all the news agencies that have engaged in unethical and immoral conduct to promote sensational journalism without any diligence or proper verification and with the intent of defaming my client."

This is the music video which has been the root of all allegations:

Gazmer's wife, Sashwati also seconded his post and so did actor Sushma Reddy. She wrote, “I know Satya Gazmer to be as scrupulous as they come…I just can’t tolerate unnecessary slander, given I was part of the project…hence vouching for what he is saying..”