About a month ago, CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani was caught on camera spectacularly ignoring a Mirror Now reporter, even as the two of them were in an elevator. The woman reporter was asking Nihalani about his verdict on allowing the word ‘intercourse’ in the film When Harry Met Sejal.
Some background: The CBFC chief had ‘challenged’ the channel to get at least one lakh Indians to vote in the favour of its inclusion.
Big surprise: they did.
Another big surprise: It didn’t convince Nihalani.
Weeks after that incident, and the wide sharing of the video online, Nihalani has filed a complaint against Himanshi Chaudhary, the Mirror Now reporter, for “harassing” him in the office building, “blocking his way”, not allowing him to enter the lift and “exceeding all levels of courteous behavior.”
In a copy of the complaint accessed by Subhash K Jha for The Quint, Nihalani has written to the police inspector of Girgaum in Mumbai, alleging that Himanshi has been “intruding on his privacy” by airing the footage without his willingness, and by forcing him to speak.
“Whenever she sees me, she enters into the lift with me and switches on her camera and continuously pesters me to speak while I choose to remain silent. She portrays me in a derogatory and humiliating manner on television and is blotting my image,” Nihalani writes.
It is not clear when the letter was sent to the inspector, but it says that on the day of writing, Himanshi had tried to stop him from entering the lift and asked him questions.
Nihalani writes that Himanshi may use this incident, too, to her “advantage” and “make false allegations” and “create another story.” He adds in the letter that this amounts to willful obstruction of a government officer’s duties.
You can watch the video which started the controversy here. While the reporter does follow Nihalani into the elevator, and requests him to answer her questions, it is unclear what counts as obstruction of his path.