Sacred Games starlet Elnaaz Narouzi accuses Vipul Shah of sexual advances

In a call against sexual harassment in Bollywood, budding Iranian actress Elnaaz Narouzi has accused Namaste England filmmaker Vipul Shah of making sexual advances towards her while dragging her for months over a promised role in his film.

The 'Sacred Games' actress told Indian sources that the filmmaker lured her into ‘auditioning’ for a second lead role in his latest film, Namaste England for months but didn't cast her in any role after many auditions and sexual harassment. 

Elnaaz has alleged that Shah made uncomfortable moves towards her at different occasions, adding that he also got her to come to the shoot location for Namaste England in Patiala without ever signing her up for the film. 

He took another audition of her there but still did not tell her the story of the film, and  only made her feel like the worst actress— putting that he first  wanted her to get comfortable around leads Parineeti   Chopra and Arjun  Kapoor.

“The next time we met at his office, he tried to kiss me. I backed off, said, ‘What are you doing? We are in your office!’ I pushed him away, being affirmative; but careful enough not to come across as rude, because I really wanted the film,” she mentioned.

She stated that after a couple more excuses later, where he was being reluctant in sharing details about the shooting for the role, she flew for another work commitment as Vipul only kept delaying the confirmation.

She said when Vipul heard that Narouzi has landed a role in Netflix’s 'Sacred Games', he tried to derail her from the other project warning that the filmmakers there would offer her explicit scenes.

“He said that he would launch me in a big way. It was a girl-next-door part in 'Namaste England', and that he was clear he would not be able to cast me, as a result of 'Sacred Games', and that I should skip the offer, since they would make me do nude scenes,” she said.

She said she couldn’t call out his gestures, afraid that the matter would negatively intervene with her work visa as she was a foreigner and Vipul was a stronghold.

“The only reason I am sharing this is because I want these kinds of disgusting people to stop misusing their power,” she concluded.

“I was mentally tortured for three months. It was evident that if I slept with Vipul, I would get the part. Every time I went to his office, he tried (to hit) on me. He (would) inappropriately touch me, and (try to) kiss me,” she said.

The filmmaker is yet to make a comment on the allegations.