"He even tried to touch me inappropriately."
Bhojpuri actress Rani Chatterjee opened up about her casting couch experience with Sajid Khan.
The filmmaker has faced a number of sexual harassment accusations from the likes of Mandana Karimi, Kanishka Soni, Rachel White among others.
Sajid Khan caused more controversy when it was revealed that he would be entering Bigg Boss 16 as a contestant.
Now, Rani Chatterjee has recalled an incident with the filmmaker.
She explained that she contacted his team to be part of an item song for his 2013 film Himmatwala, which starred Ajay Devgn.
Rani said Sajid called her directly and asked her to come to his house for a meeting.
Rani said: “I got in contact with Sajid’s team during the shoot of Himmatwala. He had himself called me and told me that the director wants to get in touch with me.
“Then he later told me, you come to my house and the meeting could be held there.
“He also instructed me to come alone and not bring any manager or PR since it was a formal meeting.”
Rani turned up at his house and whilst speaking about the song, Sajid said she would have to wear a short lehenga.
He then allegedly told her to lift up her long skirt to her knees.
“Since he’s such a huge director in Bollywood, I listened to him. I went to his Juhu house where he was alone.
“He initially told me that he was casting me for the ‘Dhoka Dhoka’ item song.
“He told me that I will have to wear a short lehenga and asked me to show him my legs. Since I was wearing a long skirt, I had to lift it up till my knees assuming maybe that is the process.”
However, things escalated when Sajid began asking Rani about the size of her breasts and how often she had sex.
She claimed that “the filmmaker questioned my breast size and raised a question on frequency of intercourse with my boyfriend”.
Rani said: “I got scared when he asked me to tell him about my breast size.
“Don’t be shy, do you have a boyfriend or not? How often do you have sex?”
“I got uncomfortable and asked him, ‘what is all this conversation?’ He thought I would do him a favour, but I immediately left. He even tried to touch me inappropriately.”
Rani Chatterjee said she wanted to come out with the allegations at the time but feared being banished from the film industry due to Sajid Khan’s stature in the industry.
When she saw many women call out the filmmaker, Rani gathered courage.
She said she decided to speak about her experience when he appeared on Bigg Boss 16.