Felt guilty for not knowing what Sajid was up to, says Farhan Akhtar

At the recently concluded We The Woman summit, actor Farhan Akhtar revealed that he is bent with a sense of guilt for not being aware of the indecent behaviour of his cousin Sajid Khan, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women.

Sajid was accused of sexual harassment by two women — actor Saloni Chopra and a journalist, following which he was asked to step down as the director of Housefull 4.

When the allegations surfaced, Farhan a vocal supporter of #MeToo movement, was one of the first celebrities to react terming them as shocking.

“Every time something like this has happened in the public domain, I've been very vocal with my opinion. When it came to someone within my family, I felt silence on that front would be very, very hypocritical,” he said.

“So pretty much on the first day when three women came out and spoke, I felt it was important for me to speak out. Sajid, being my brother, I need to now work with him, try to figure out how he can see this thing through and how it is that he can make the women who have been affected by his actions, somehow feel better,” he added.

When pointed by the host that an apology alone would not suffice, as sexual violation is a crime, Farhan said, “Absolutely. Whether stuff like this need to go into the ambit of court is for them to decide. These are the things he (Sajid) has to face. To start with apologising is a big step. To say ‘I am sorry about what I did’ is a big step, it can make a person feel a lot better,” he said.

The actor further revealed that when he first heard about the accusations, he had conflicted emotions. “It was surprise, disappointment and strangely, because when it’s a member of your family, you also feel a certain level of guilt. It’s happened to all of us in the past when we hear something like this and say ‘but how come someone so close to him didn’t know.’”

Farhan wishes he had known about Sajid’s behaviour. He also mentioned that three women spoke to him privately accusing the filmmaker of the same.

“If I did know I would've spoken about it way before the story broke. There was this certain guilt about that, how could this be going on and I had no idea,” he said, adding, “There were two-three women who got in touch with me privately to say ‘listen you should know whatever is being said is true and he has behaved in a similar way with us as well.’ These are the people I’ve known for 12, 15, 20 years and meet them very often but nobody ever mentioned this to me. I asked them why didn’t you ever tell me?”

But according to the actor ultimately it is a woman’s decision when she wants to come out or tell her story.

“If someone has behaved badly with a woman and she hasn't spoken about it for 10, 20 or 30 years, it’s her prerogative when she wants to speak. Even if someone tells me privately, like these three women, I cannot take their names,” he concluded.