Salman Khan’s father Salim Khan comes out in support of MeToo, slams detractors

Salman Khan’s father, writer Salim Khan has made a statement - albeit not explicitly - about the ongoing #MeToo movement sweeping the Hindi film industry. He seemed to be in support of the movement through which several high-profile Bollywood names have been outed as alleged sexual offenders.

“The only defence they have is ‘Why so late ?’ It is better late than never. You don’t have to wait for the result, you have already won great public support,” Salim wrote, apparently in response to the argument made by many detractors about why accusers had in some cases waited many years to make their allegations public.

“Aadmi pahad se gir kar khadda ho sakta hai…apni nazron se girkar nahin (a man can fall off a mountain and land on his feet, but he can’t if he lets himself down),” Salim continued.

Several prominent Bollywood personalities such as directors Subhash Ghai, Rajat Kapoor, Sajid Khan and actors such as Nana Patekar and Alok Nath have been named in India’s #MeToo movement. Action has already been initiated against some of the alleged accused. While investigations have been launched into some cases, Sajid Khan has quit his duties as director on Housefull 4, with star Akshay Kumar announcing that the production has been halted until the matter has been looked into. Aamir Khan walked away from Subhash Kapoor’s directorial Mogul after molestation complaint resurfaced against the director. Yash Raj Films on Tuesday terminated the services of accused Ashish Patil, the creative head of Y-Films.

On Monday, Salman Khan’s former girlfriend Somy Ali shared an emotional post in support of everyone coming forward with their stories. “As a survivor of sexual abuse at the age of 5 and rape at 14, I would like to salute all those that have spoken up and plan on doing so. I know it is very difficult to do it because I have been there and it took me many years to be able to talk about it. It takes immense amount of courage to share this with the world,” she wrote.

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