Homebound cinematographer Pratik Shah has landed into controversy over his alleged inappropriate behaviour and sexual misconduct with women. In 2020, a complaint was made against him with the Indian Women Cinematographer Collective (IWCC).
Filmmaker and cinematographer, Juhi Sharma, made IWCC aware about the alleged incident in 2020. She revealed it involved a young cinematographer who was a great admirer of Shah's work, started following him on Instagram.
Juhi came to know about the incident by another cinematographer, who told her that her cinematographer-friend had an unpleasant experience with Pratik Shah.
Juhi Sharma shared, "The cinematographer told me that the woman had started following Pratik [online], and in conversation, he suddenly asked for nude pictures. She felt very scared. She just wanted to work with him, and he was saying all kinds of [uncomfortable] things to her."
Sharma was in shock as she and Pratik were friends.
She informed the IWCC about the alleged inappropriate behaviour and asked them if Shah had made advances towards anyone else. "Nobody else had such an experience," she said.
The IWCC decided to give a warning to Shah. "I'm the kind of person, who doesn't believe that shaming someone to the extent of saying 'get out' is going to do anything. I'm of the opinion that yes, people have wronged, but they have to be given one chance to be told you have wronged. Now go back, take note of your actions, don't do it again and come back and tell us how you're going to change," Sharma said.
"As Indian women in the film industry, it's not like this is the first time it's happening. I've had this uncomfortable conversation with so many men that now I'm just exhausted. I have spoken to men and told them what did was horrible, and that I could go out in public and say this, but I would not. This is what we told Pratik as well, that we could but we would'nt go public with the complaint. We issued a strict warning to him about his unacceptable behaviour," she added.
Juhi said that Pratik apologised and said that "he couldn바카라™t believe that he was being construed like this." Over a voice note, he also promised that he wouldn바카라™t do it again and Juhi shared the voice note with the collective, and for years, they didn바카라™t hear any complaints against him. He even hired an all-women crew in his team.
On May 29, filmmaker Abhinav Singh took to social media to open up about the testimonies of multiple women who accused Pratik Shah of "emotionally abusive" and asking for nude pictures. Juhi said that they gave Pratik a chance to change, but he didn't.
When asked how the IWCC is looking into the matter now, Juhi said, "We have a no-tolerance policy for such cases. On May 30, the senior members asked people, who have had such unfortunate experiences with him or anyone else, to come forward and speak up. The IWCC is taking cognizance of the matter."
Pratik has been reportedly dropped from several projects following the accusations.
