Prithviraj claims he immediately fired Bro Daddy assistant director accused of rape: ‘He was asked to go to police’

“I was made aware of the issue when my chief associate director told me that such a complaint has been registered with the police against the said assistant director. This happened in October 2023 at the very beginning of Empuraan filming, a few days into the first schedule. I wasn’t aware of this incident or the issues leading up to the complaint till then. The assistant director was instructed to leave the set the very same day, present himself before the police and face the due course of law,” he added. As per the publication, the police was unable to arrest the accused.

According to the report, the alleged incident took place on August 8, 2021, in Hyderabad, where the junior artist was on set to act in a wedding scene. The report further suggests that Mansoor spiked her drink, and raped her in a hotel room where she was staying along with the film crew. The AD was also accused of taking her nude images and blackmailing her using those images.

Several instances of sexual assaults and misconduct have surfaced ever since the justice Hema Committee report was made public on August 19, five years after it was submitted to the Kerala government. The 233-page document, even with redacted portions, provided a damning indictment of the discrimination and exploitation faced by women in the Malayalam film industry.