Karan Johar said the charges in the drug case did not involve him or his company.
Mumbai:
Filmmaker Karan Johar said on Friday that he did not personally know two people who were being investigated in an ever-widening investigation into allegations of drug abuse in Bollywood, refuting media reports describing them as his “helpers.”
“Various media / news channels have been broadcasting news reports that Kshitij Prasad and Anubhav Chopra are my ‘helpers’ / ‘close helpers’. I would like to put on the record that I do not know these people personally and neither of these two people are ‘helpers’ or ‘close helpers,’ “it said in a statement.
The producer-director said that Anubhav Chopra was not an employee of his company Dharma Productions, although he had worked on two projects with the company in an independent capacity between 2011 and 2013.
Kshitij Ravi Prasad joined Dharmatic Entertainment, a company linked to Dharma Productions, in November 2019 as one of the executive producers under contract for a project that ultimately did not materialize, he said.
“Neither I nor Dharma Productions can be held responsible for what people do in their personal lives. These accusations do not belong to Dharma Productions,” said Karan Johar.
The filmmaker, who has been subjected to harassment and abuse by a section of users of social networks and television channels since the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June, lashed out at the “malicious campaign” that began with accusations of encouraging the nepotism and then turned into a spiral of rampant drug abuse complaints.
He destroyed reports that suggested drugs were used at a party he hosted at his home last year in July and said: “These defamatory and malicious statements, news articles and press clippings have unnecessarily subjected me, my family, to my colleagues and Dharma Productions, to hatred, contempt and ridicule. “
“I would like to state again unequivocally that I do not use narcotics and do not encourage or encourage the use of any of those substances,” he said.
“In recent days, the media has resorted to nasty, distorted and false accusations. I hope members of the media will exercise restraint, otherwise I will be left with no choice but to legally protect my rights against this attack. unfounded against me, “added Mr. Johar.
Kshitij Ravi Prasad and Anubhav Chopra are among the growing list of members of the Hindi film industry in Mumbai who have come under the lens of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for alleged drug abuse which has also called out major players such as Deepika Padukone for questioning.
The allegations followed an investigation into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput that uncovered drug abuse charges by him and led to the arrest of several of his associates, including his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, also an actress, for allegedly helping him procure contraband.
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