#MeToo: 'Who is Sonam Kapoor to judge me?' Kangana hits back at colleague

Accusing producer-director Vikas Bahl of sexually misbehaving with her, Kangana had said: "I often told him off. He was scared of me but still every time we met socially greeted and hugged each other, he'd bury his face in my neck and hold me really tight and breathe in the smell of my hair. It took me great amount of strength and effort to pull myself out of his embrace. He'd say, 'I love how you smell K'." 

Reacting to Kangana's statement, Sonam  told NDTV, "(Kangana Ranaut) says a lot of stuff and sometimes is hard to take her seriously. I love the fact that she has spunk and she says what she believes. I really respect that."

The Queen actress has hit back at Sonam and was quoted by the channel: "What does she mean by saying, 'it's hard to believe Kangana'? WhenI am sharing my #MeToo story, who gives her a right to judge me?"

Kangana shared her experience after a former employee of Phantom Films levelled accusations of sexual abuse against the company's co-owner Vikas Bahl.

Kangana Ranaut said she believe the victim and her charges against Bahl.

"Totally believe her. Even though Vikas was married back in 2014 when we were filming Queen, he bragged about having casual sex with a new partner every other day. I don't judge people and their marriages but you can tell when addiction becomes sickness. He partied every night and shamed me for sleeping early and not being cool enough," the actress told India Today.

Kangana had worked with Bahl in Queen.

Meanwhile, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has said he knew of the sexual abuse allegations made against co-owner of Phantom Films Vikas Bahl by the company's former employee.

Kashyap, in a statement issued by him on the social media, apologised to the woman.

"I am deeply, truly sorry to the woman in question," Kashyap said in a statement.

Kashyap issued the statement after Huffington Post India published an article on Saturday giving details of the victim’s account of assault.

In his statement, Kashyap said he was misguided by those who were in-charge of the legal department.

He said the victim had decided not to tell him about the incident.

"She put herself through personal hell to protect me and I could not because I was unfortunately ill-advised that there was little I could do,” he said.

Anurag also changed his Twitter display picture to a black banner on Sunday.

Kashyap claimed in his statement that he 'named and shamed' Bahl in film circles.

He said the Phantom Films contract did not allow him to fire Bahl from the company.

Anurag Kashyap said he suspended Bahl as well as revoked his signing authority.   

The film director also wrote in the statement that the film industry is singularly 'ill-equipped to handle matters such as sexual harassment'

#MeToo campaign in India has started after actress Tanushree Dutta accused actor Nana Patekar of sexually misbehaving with her on the sets of 2008 movie Horn OK Pleassss.

Image: twitter.com/sonamakapoor