Director Neeraj Ghaywan omitted the name of cinematographer Pratik Shah in a post unveiling the trailer of his upcoming film Homebound amid sexual misconduct allegations against Shah.
Starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor, Homebound premiered at Cannes earlier this year and was named India’s official entry for the Best International Feature category at the 98th Academy Awards.
Sharing the trailer on Instagram, Ghaywan wrote, “Let everything happen to you. Beauty and Terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Presenting the trailer of our film Homebound. In cinemas on 26th September. Here are the wonderful people who were part of this Homebound journey”.
Ghaywan then tagged members of the cast and crew, mentioning their roles in the film. However, the name of the cinematographer was missing from the post.
Shah, who has also worked on Jubilee and CTRL, has been accused of inappropriate behaviour by multiple women. Filmmaker Abhinav Singh recently claimed more than 20 women had approached him with accounts of Shah crossing professional boundaries.
Shah had earlier been flagged by the Indian Women Cinematographers’ Collective (IWCC) after a complaint from a young colleague, and reports say he was dropped from the upcoming Sourav Ganguly biopic following the allegations.
Dharma Productions, producers of Homebound, clarified in a statement that Shah was engaged on the film only as a freelancer for a limited period. “At Dharma Productions, we have a zero-tolerance policy against inappropriate behaviour and sexual harassment,” the studio said.
“During this limited period, our internal committee for POSH didn't receive any complaints against him from any cast or crew on our film Homebound,” the statement further read.