Choreographer Jani Master – whose real name is Shaik Jani Basha and who works primarily in the Telugu and Tamil film industries – and has been accused of sexual harassment by a 21-year-old woman employee.
Police in Telangana’s Rayadurgam have filed a ‘zero’ FIR, or a first information report, based on a complaint by the woman who said Jani Master, who has also worked in Kannada and Hindi films, assaulted multiple times, including once at a Mumbai hotel.
The cops are trying to contact the woman to record a detailed statement, but she is “unreachable” at this time, Chief Inspector Krishna Reddy told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
According to the woman, she met Master at an event in 2017. Two years later he offered her a job as an assistant choreographer, which she accepted. The alleged sexual assault took place after that – at a hotel Master and she, and other dancers, were staying in during a Mumbai show.
In her complaint she said Jani Master and two other male assistants had travelled to Mumbai.
The woman said she would normally have been accompanied by her mother, but was not this time since there tickets were not available. She also claimed Master threatened her if she told anyone of the assault and continued to harass her during shoots.
According to the complaint he even forced her to convert to his religion and ‘marry’ him.
Over the next few months Master would apparently frequently summon her to his cabin and sexually assault her, threatening to ruin her career if she did not comply each time.
The woman has also alleged Master would show up at her home some nights and, on one occasion, his wife (he was already married) and Master barged into her room and slapped her.
Meanwhile, acting swiftly to evade political backlash, actor-politician Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (a member of the BJP-led alliance at the centre) has ordered Master to stay away from its events.
Master, a member of the Jana Sena, has told local media he has not been expelled, and has no issues with the party leadership’s instruction.
The allegation comes amid over churn in the Kerala movie business after the release of a partly redacted judicial committee report triggered an avalanche of sex assault allegations against senior actors and filmmakers. That list includes M Mukesh – an MLA with Kerala’s ruling CPIM.
Popular actors and directors like Nivin Pauly, Jayasurya, Mukesh, and Siddique all face multiple charges of assault and/or rape, and are being investigated by a special police team set up by the Kerala government. They have all denied the claims and labelled them “baseless”.
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The allegations roiling the Kerala film industry, called Mollywood, include some shocking stories, like actor Sowmya saying she was “groomed as a sex slave” by a director from Tamil Nadu. They have also led to a fierce political fight between the CPIM and the opposition.
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And it isn’t just the Kerala movie industry in the spotlight; the Congress has come under attack after one a state leaders, Simi Bell John, spoke of a ‘casting couch’ in the party’s state ranks. The claim has been denied and Ms John expelled for “colluding with political rivals”.