The Madhur Bhandarkar - Priti Jain rape / forced sex saga on television

Anything makes for primetime television now. Come on and watch the show!

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Actress Priti Jain accuses director of Chandi bar Madhur Bhandarkar of raping her and making false promises. She files a case, and discusses it on TV. 

Chandni Bar director Madhur Bhandarkar was accused by model / actress Priti Jain of raping her. According to her statement, "We had sex 16 times and Madhur made promises of giving me a lead role in his films. However, he didn't offer me a lead role in any of his movies. At times when I refused, he raped me."

On Friday, Priti Jain appeared on NDTV, and reiterated her allegations. NDTV also had a panel who discussed the issue. As usual, anchor Srinivasan Jain kept interuupting the panelists and actress Diana Hayden who was on alive feed from somewhere else. (Maybe one should not blame Srinivasan Jain - it could be a problems with the way interviews and discussions are conducted on TV with time constraints. But well, even the way he says 'okay', or 'alright' sounds more like 'just get on with it will you'!)

Madhur Bhandarkar, who has been booked by Mumbai Police on charges of rape and threatening murder Priti Jain was granted interim bail till July 27 by a local court in Mumbai. 

What is new is that someone who is supposedly a victim comes on live television and accused someone else. There is nothing wrong with this - your extent of boldness is your business. The media inevitably turns the discussion around to one on casting couches in the film industry. And then rushes through the discussion!

Priti Jain says that when she refused to have sex with Madhur Bhandarkar, she was forced to do so. And that it happened several times. She is open about the fact that she thought in the end she would get a lead role in one of his films. That allegation, if a promise was made and broken, is a case of fraud. But when sex is involved, courts tend to treat it as a case of rape. Sex by deceit. On the other hand, 'force' becomes debatable when the victim is obviously capable of picking a public battle or is no wimp. (In the Justice Sirajuddin Desai rape case, the capability of the victim to resist was an issue). 

Madhur Bhandarkar also says he knew her, but as one of the several women who approach him for roles in his films. He has flatly denied that he ever promised to marry her or had sex with her.

Both of them can't be right - and someone is definitely lying. I wish the case remains in the public eye only for one reason - whoever is lying, and therefore is responsible for this entire media circus and therefore damaging the quality of primetime television should go to jail. If it is settled out of court - can rape cases be settled out of court? - then the joke would be on us viewers.

Updated: On Sunday, Preeti Jain appeared in a chat with Shekhar Suman on Star TV, the the host who never knows how to talk, screwed it up again. It looked as if he was enjoying the whole affair. Preeti, too, didn't come across as convincing. Meanwhile, on saturday evening, it was reported that just three days before sending a legal notice to Madhur Bhandarkar, Preeti had sent a similar notice to a composer accusing him of more or less the same stuff. 

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