LAHORE – Singer Shweta Pandit alleges that Anu Malik asked her for a “kiss” when she was just 15 way back in 2000. Shweta came forward with her story after Tanushree Dutta started the #MeToo movement in India.
Here is her story:
“It has taken a lot in me to open up this wound again and speak up against this paedophile and sexual predator. It was the year 2000 when I was launched as a lead singer with ‘Mohabbatein‘ (was the youngest singer back then in the Indian music industry) and was trying to get other good songs to follow up with the success of that soundtrack and the outstanding welcome it gave me in the music industry. I got a call from Anu Malik’s then manager (Mustafa) to come to Empire Studio in Andheri sometime in mid-2001. I was thrilled like any singer would be. I used to admire his music and practice his songs for hours and look up to him back then! He was recording a group song with Sunidhi and Shaan for the film ‘Awara Pagal Deewana‘ when my mother and I walked in the monitor room. He told me to wait in the small cabin inside where singers sang at Empire studio. It was just him and me there.“
Shweta continues with her account of the event describing how things had taken a horrifying turn inside the cabin:
“He asked me to sing something without any music as he wanted to hear my voice. I remember I sang the title song of ‘Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega‘ as a voice test for this man. I sang it well so he said, “I’ll give you this song with Sunidhi and Shaan but first give me a kiss now.” He then smiled, what I’d recall as the most evil grin I’ve seen. I went numb and pale in the face. I was only 15 years old then, still in school. Can anyone even imagine what it felt like at that moment? It felt like someone had just stabbed me in my stomach. I referred to this man as ‘Anu uncle‘, he knew my entire family for decades and knew us as a respected gharana of musicians for generations who have given our entire lives dedicated to music for 4 generations.
He addressed my father as ‘Mandheer bhai’. And he does this to his bhai’s daughter? He has 2 young daughters of his own and that’s how he treated a 15-year-old minor girl.”
She goes on to describe how this incident had affected her mentally as a young girl:
“It was the worst experience of my life and I could never speak about it even to my parents. I could never ask any help to heal but was depressed for months. I cried endlessly after this incident and it affected my psyche as a young girl, so much that I could have left the industry but I re-thought and fought with my will-power that why should I leave my greatest passion for a paedophile like him but I still kept struggling for years to bury this inside me. I am sure many singers have been exploited by him as he is a known name for doing this to singers. I’d urge those singers/women to share their stories too.”
She called out Anu on her twitter handle as well.
https://twitter.com/ShwetaPandit7/status/1052490035407204353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1052490035407204353&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.storypick.com%2Fshweta-pandit-me-too-anu-malik%2F
