Jennifer Mistry 'playing the woman card', say producers accused of sexual harassment

Right after actor Jennifer Mistry, best known as Roshan Sodhi in the television series Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah, quit the show, accusing its producer of sexual harassment, the producers turned around and threatened to sue her.

Asit Kumarr Modi, one of the accused producers, said in a statement, “We will take legal action as she is trying to defame me and the show both. Since we terminated her services, she is making these baseless allegations.”

The show’s others producers also released a statement, echoing Modi’s claims that Mistry was fired.

Mistry, who had been a part of the show for 15 years, had filed a complaint against Modi, Sohail Ramani, and executive producer Jatin Bajaj, accusing them of sexual misconduct in the workplace.

"We have removed her from the show three months ago and now she is desperate. She is unable to find work, so she is just doing it to blackmail us. It is cheap for publicity," Ramani told the Hindustan Times, adding that Mistry used to create "rifts among others, come two hours late for [the] shoot. We have a lot of evidence against her".

Ramani said he was hurt by Mistry's allegations: "We have a committee of women, why did she never complain to the committee? All of us have never even entered a female artist's makeup room. She is playing the woman card."

The incident has led to a wave of reactions on Twitter: