Abhinav Kashyap accuses Salman Khan & family of sabotaging his career, Arbaaz contemplates ‘legal action’

NEW DELHI: The tragic demise of Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput has sparked online conversation and debate about nepotism and the ‘dark side of Bollywood’. Several insiders have come forward with their opinions and called out the B-Town ‘privilege club’ for its insensitivity.

Film-maker Abhinav Singh Kashyap has accused Salman Khan and his family - brothers Arbaaz and Sohail - of sabotaging his career. In a long social media post on Facebook, he also alleged that the bullying and gaslighting has affected his mental health.

Kashyap said that Rajput’s death is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, just like the #MeToo movement was for a much bigger ‘malaise’ in Bollywood.


Kashyap, who made his debut as the director of the Salman-starrer ‘Dabangg’ in 2010, in a 1000-word Facebook post, wrote that the reason he moved out of making ‘Dabangg 2’ was because Arbaaz, ‘in collusion with’ Sohail was trying to take control of his career and bully him.

“Arbaaz Khan sabotaged my second project with Shree Ashtavinayak Films that I was signed up with by personally calling their head Mr. Raj Mehta and threatening him with dire consequences if they made a film with me. I had to return the signing money to Shree Ashtavinayak films and moved to Viacom Pictures. They did the same thing,” wrote Kashyap.

Kashyap alleged that Sohail intimidated the then Viacom CEO Vikram Malhotra which led to his project being sabotaged and him being made to return his signing amount of Rs 7 crore and Rs 90 lakh.

That was when Reliance Entertainment came to Kashyap’s rescue and forged a partnership with him for his film ‘Besharam’. Kashyap says that his ‘enemies’, then ran a “sustained negative Trolling and badmouthing campaign against the film till the Box Office of my [his] film collapsed.”

In the post, Kashyap also blamed Salman and family for sabotaging his creative endeavours and accused them of giving him life threats and ‘rape threats to/for the female members of my [his] family.’

"The sustained gaslighting and bullying destroyed my mental health and that of my family and led to my divorce and breaking up of my family in 2017,” wrote Kashyap.

Kashyap also revealed that in 2017, he had gone to file an FIR with the police which they refused to register but filed a ‘non-cognizable complaint’. When the threats continued, Kashyap said, he asked the police to trace the numbers but they couldn’t be traced back to Sohail, who Kashyap feels was the suspected sender.

Kashyap, however, ended his post on a hopeful note, writing that he won’t give up and will fight on till he sees the end of them (Salman & co) or him. ‘Enough tolerance, time to fight back,’ concluded the film-maker.

Producer Anurag Kashyap, on Tuesday, took to Twitter to clarify his stance on his younger brother’s allegations. Anurag wrote, “More than two years ago , Abhinav had told me clearly to stay out of his business and it’s not my place to comment on anything he says or does.“

Arbaaz Khan has now responded to Kashyap’s allegations. According to a Times of India report, Arbaaz said, “We will take legal course against him.” Arbaaz also said that Abhinav is clearly contradicting himself from what he earlier said. Sharing instances, the filmmaker shared links of his earlier interviews which he did at the time when ‘Dabangg 2’ was announced.

In both these interviews, Abhinav said he had no qualms of not being a part of ‘Dabangg’.

Salman is yet to respond to Kashyap’s allegations.