#MeToo Controversy: Boney Kapoor, Arshad Warsi defend Rajkumar Hirani
After Nana Patekar, Alok Nath, Vikas Bahl, Sajid Khan and former Union minister MJ Akbar, the latest to rope in the #MeToo controversy is noted filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani. Many Bollywood celebrities expressed their shock over the allegation and latest to speak in the defense of Hirani is his very good friend and colleague Boney Kapoor and Arshad Warsi.
Arshard Warsi, who played Circuit in Hirani's Munna Bhai franchise, said, "If you talk to me about Raju Hirani as a person, as a personality and how he is, I think he is a wonderful person and a thorough gentleman. So, for me, It’s a shocker as it is for everybody else who has heard this news."
"Rajkumar Hirani is too good a man to do something like this. I don't believe this allegation. He can never do something like this," Boney Kapoor told ANI.
Rajkumar Hirani totally rubbished the allegation.
“I was completely shocked when these allegations were brought to my notice about two months back. I had suggested immediately that it is essential to take this matter to any committee or any legal body. The complainant has chosen to go to the media instead. I want to very strongly state that this is a false malicious and mischievous story being spread with the sole intention of destroying my reputation,” Hirani’s statement read.
Dia Mirza, who worked with Hirani in ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ and ‘Sanju’, told PTI that she is deeply distressed by the news. “As someone who has known and respects Raju Sir for 15 years I can only hope that a due official enquiry is conducted. He is one of the most decent human beings I have ever worked with and I think it would be grossly unjust on my part to speak on this as I do not know the details,” the actor said.
Sharman Joshi, who played Raju Rastogi in Hirani’s ‘3 idiots’ wrote# “Raju Sir, is a man of immense integrity, character, honour, compassion and truthfulness, all the virtues one would imagine are non existent in people today, someone I am absolutely inspired by and have learnt from and because of whom I believe I have gone onto being a better person.
“All I want to say is that this too shall pass and I can imagine how demeaning it might be to even stand up for yourself in a situation such as this,” the actor told PTI.
