People said my career was over: Madhur Bhandarkar

The 9-year old ordeal and trauma of director Madhur Bhandarkar and his family ended suddenly on Monday morning when the honourable Supreme Court quashed the rape charges leveled against Madhur by starlet Preeti Jain.

Madhur now reveals how hurt he was by doomsday prediction for his career. “When it happened I know a lot of people said Madhur Bhanadarkar’s career is over. But I made films that the government honoured. Somewhere that reassured me. I felt the people who matter saw through the false charge.”

In fact right after false allegation I made Page 3 for which I got the National award. Then I made another National award winning film Fashion. I never fumbled during these past nine years. I continued doing my work.”

Speaking of the wider repercussions of the charge leveled against the filmmaker for “raping” the starlet with false promises of roles in his films Madhur opines, “I feel somewhere this incident permanently damaged the rapport between directors and aspiring actors.Filmmakers said, ‘Jaisa Madhur Bhandarkar ke saath hua hamare saath na ho jaye.’. After my experience no director wants to meet a new actor or actress directly. We now have casting agencies to do the casting in our films. A lot of filmmakers have installed CCTV cameras in their offices to ensure that any meeting with actors is not misrepresented.”

Madhur’s wife Renu broke into tears when he called her with the joyful news. Says Madhur, “Our marriage was only six months old when this case happened. I called her. She was traveling and jumped out of her seat. In fact when I left for the court in the morning she had told me it would end today.”

Madhur said, “When I heard the verdict I didn’t understand what was being said. My senior counsel Harish Salve said ‘Madhur, your case is over’. It still didn’t registrer. I can’t tell you what I felt at that moment. Everything froze. For a few seconds I was lost. My other lawyer Shreyansh Mithare shook me and told me I was finally free of the charge that had haunted me for nine years.”

“It took me time to just walk across that corridor of the Supreme Court. I thought I was in a dream. I went in a corner, stood and wept like a baby. The relief is something I can’t put in words.”  Madhur said,

Speaking for the first time on the horrific ordeal he went through Madhur says, “I continued to work as normal. But somewhere within me the false accusation was always there haunting and tormenting me. But I had to be brave. I had the support of my wife, sister and mother and friends specially Ashoke Pundit who stood by me all through.”

“I was never demoralized. I never had to face any kind of suspicion or negativity because of what I was going through. Some of the biggest heroines happily worked with me. I never felt any awkwardness just because someone had made such a nasty accusation against me. I continued to make my movies. I think I did my best work during this period of trial.