Daisy Shah was the assistant choreographer to Ganesh Acharya on the sets of Horn Ok Pleasss when the big Hungama between Tanushree Dutta and Nana Patekar took place that has become a full blown controversy post Tanushree’s tough stand on the matter. Daisy exclusively spoke to Bollywood Hungama’s Faridoon Shahryar in Ahmedabad to set the record straight.
Daisy you were one of the assistants to Ganesh Acharya on the sets of Horn Ok Pleasss when this entire much talked about incident took place. Tanushree has said that you were nice to her and has good memories of you. How do you look at this incident that happened to her?
See, first everybody has to understand that an assistant choreographer is not a part of main conversation that happens between higher level people that is producer, Director, Choreographer, Actor. So these are the four primary pillars of that particular song. My job was to give Tanushree the steps, make her learn them and then help her execute. Now what Tanushree has said that I and she had a great rapport. Yes, because we rehearsed for 3-4 days before shooting song and on the sets also for first 2 days everything went very swiftly and on the third day something happened which I am not aware of but Tanushree, being a woman, she has come out and she has said that this is what she has gone through. So I totally sympathize with her. But, I mean, I can’t say anything. Because I don’t even know whether the producer is right or whether the director is right or whether the artist is right but as a woman I totally stand by Tanushree Dutt.
Alright, so basically what is happening is that she has went out of the Industry, she has been in US for 10 years and it is being said that may be she is doing it for publicity. I don’t think any woman will do it for publicity.
Nobody will want to talk about all these things . I mean it’s not a good thing. Why would anybody want to talk about sexual harassment that person has gone through and that too after a decade. There must be a lava inside her (Tanushree) that bursted out after ten years and why not! I mean she has gone through it and she should definitely speak up. Because if women like her come out , there are a lot of other women who can actually get that courage from people like Tanushree.
Tanushree has also constantly said that her car was totally damaged but there’s other version that no Tod-Fod took place or no Hungama took place on the sets that day.
Oh, there was a lot of hungama that happened on the second half of the day, on the third day of shoot. Umm, first half went pretty well, after the lunch, there was supposed to be a short shot there but apparently Tanushree came out, she rehearsed for this shot and then she went and locked herself in the vanity van. And now in midst of this I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what happened when she was rehearsing for that particular step. Must be something. She must have been touched in a wrong way or whatever it is. So that is something and again, me as an assistant, I was not only there to teach the steps to Tanushree, there was a big setup. We had 60-70 dancers. So the assistant choreographer’s job is also to set up the entire shot. So in the midst of that something might have gone wrong with her, then she went and locked herself in the vanity van for almost 3-4 hours. And Then the media was called and then the entire “hoo-haa” happened and Tanushree had a really hard time. Not only Tanushree , everybody shooting at Filmistan had a hard time to get out of the studio in the night. Because everybody’s cars were blocked and in that yes Tanushree’s car’s wind shield cracked.
Rakhi Sawant has done a press conference yesterday and she has said that she was approached for the song and Ganesh Acharya told her to come immediately and in whatever clothes she was in. So what she’s saying that she didn’t like the song but she did it to save the producer and the Director.
Now see that is again something that I don’t know. That is again on a higher level conversation. Humara kaam , humko bola jata hai , hame ye bataya jata hai ki ye heroine hai, ise ye step sikhana hai, hamara wo kam tha. And that is what I was assigned for and I kept myself very aloof. Main apna kaam karti thi, nikal jati thi. Main baki fasaad me ghusti hi nahi thi.
Okay, so now Rakhi has also said that she (Tanushree) was locked inside vanity van for four hours and she was doped out. She is alleging that she was on drugs and she didn’t come out because of that.
I never entered Tanushree’s van so I can not comment on this but one thing I am sure that on that day, when the entire incident took place, Tanushree’s mom was with her. So no person in the right state will dope with mother being around.
There are two sides right now. There’re lots of people who are supporting her right now like Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Richa Chaddha, Swara Bhaskar , Sonam has just spoken about it. So do you feel it is may be a good step because more people will feel more secure. Anyone will think twice before doing it.
I think speaking up is important and that’s the reason I said after this step that Tanushree has taken, there might be more women who want to talk about this and this will give them courage or I hope this has given them the courage. I can only hope for it because if you can’t stand for yourself, nobody can stand for you.
