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Singer and musician Anu Malik, who was accused of sexual harassment by many women during #MeToo movement last year, has come back to the picture. As per a report in Mid-Day, the singer recently shot for a promo of a reality show that he will be seen judging soon. The report suggests that the makers of Indian Idol have decided to retain the judges from the last season – Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani and Anu Malik. They have shot for the latest promo and the channel is soon going to announce the popular singing reality show with Anu Malik as one of the judges.
The news comes a year after the same channel and same makers ousted the musician from the show following the harassment allegations and singer Javed Ali was made to replace him as one of the judges. The report in the daily quoted a source revealing that the makers are especially fond of Malik’s poetry and therefore, the decision of retaining him was made. “The makers and channel decided to reinstate Anu Malik as one of the judges as he, with his shair-o-shayari, is synonymous with Indian Idol. He has judged every season since the reality show began airing in 2004,” quoted the source.
Several prominent names from the industry were ousted under the movement last year including Sajid Khan, Alok Nath, Vikas Bahl, Nana Patekar, Kailash Kher, and Rajat Kapoor among others. Singers Sona Mohapatra and Shweta Pandit accused Malik of sexual misconduct with the former calling him a ‘serial predator’ and the later revealing an incident when he demanded a kiss in exchange of a song when she was just 15-years-old. After which, producer Danica D’Souza, who had worked with Malik on Indian Idol 5, also explained her horror story and accused the man of harassing many women in the industry.
Is it so easy to ignore or not realise what a woman who got harassed must have gone through? Is it so easy to trivialise an important movement like #MeToo by rehabilitating the accused? Such a large heart our industry has!
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