Swastika Mukherjee opts out of Shibpur trailer launch event amid sexual harassment claims: ‘There is no forgiveness’

Actor Swastika Mukherjee was not present at the trailer launch event of her upcoming film Shibpur in Kolkata. She had lodged a complaint against the producer.

Actor Swastika Mukherjee took to Facebook to announce that she won't be a part of her upcoming film Shibpur's promotional events. The trailer for the Bengali film was released on Tuesday and as informed by the actor, she did not attend the event. Her decision comes months after Swastika had lodged a complaint against the film's producer for sending her threatening emails, and morphed photos.

Swastika Mukherjee on Shibpur event

Swastika Mukherjee will be next seen in Shibpur.

In her new post, Swastika said, “To all my journalist friends who have been calling and messaging me for the past few days to ask whether I will be attending the trailer launch of my film Shibpur, well I will not. I am not in Kolkata but even if I was in the city I would not have attended. Anyone telling you otherwise is lying.”

“Sexual harassment is not a joke and there is no forgiveness for it. And neither is there any redemption. The producers may think all is chill and cool but IT IS NOT. IT WILL NEVER BE. But #Shibpur is my film and I will definitely share the trailer for my followers and fans. Thank you,” she added.

Fans react to Swastika's decision

Swastika's decision has been appreciated by many on Facebook. One of them commented, “Perfectly said! I admire u very much for this.” “No mercy for such mean people. Perfect decision,” said another one. Someone also wrote to her, “You have done a fabulous job and just as Kharajda, Neel, Ronnieda and the entire cast and a fabulous team of crew behind the cameras. Anxiously waiting to see you all on screen.”

In March, Swastika had officially lodged a complaint at Kolkata's Golf Green Police Station and sought help from the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA) after she said she received threatening emails from Sandeep Sarkar and his associates to ‘cooperate’ with them. Sandeep is the co-producer of Shibpur. She also added that they claimed to have her morphed, ‘nude’ pictures which they threatened to leak on pornography websites.

Narrating the incident, Swastika told OTT Play, “It all started pretty randomly. During the entire course of shooting and dubbing, I have never been introduced to Sandeep Sarkar. It was another co-producer Ajanta Sinha Roy who communicated with us. Suddenly, Sandeep Sarkar started sending me threatening emails. He claimed that he was an American citizen and that if I didn’t ‘cooperate’ with them he would get in touch with the US Consulate so that I never get a US visa. He also threatened to drag me to the Police Commissioner, Chief Minister, and so on. Now I have absolutely no idea what this ‘cooperation’ means. I shot the film and dubbed it and I never intended not to participate in promotional activities. Initially, the film was scheduled to release in March. I emailed my available dates to them. There was no response. Later, they shifted the release. And yet they did not bother to let me know. I got to know it from our director and again mailed him my available dates.”