Ram Kapoor and Mona Singh are all set to star in Mistry, the official Indian adaptation of the Emmy Award-winning American sitcom Monk. Jio Hotstar, which is releasing the show on June 27, held a two-day junket in Mumbai on June 19 and 20 with the two cast members. However, late night on June 19, the media was informed Ram has pulled out of the interviews on June 20, owing to a “personal emergency.”
Now, it has come to light that the reason behind his withdrawal wasn’t a personal commitment, but his inappropriate behaviour during the junket on June 19. A source present at the venue told SCREEN that the murmurs around his behaviour started when he began mansplaining in interviews and was also answering out of turn for questions directed towards his co-star.
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However, the situation turned serious when he made an inappropriate remark to a member of the Jio Hotstar marketing team right when another journalist was wearing the lapel microphone before their interview. After asking how many more interviews are planned for the day, he added with exasperation, “I feel like I’ve been gang-raped by elephants.”
After the journalist objected to the remark, Ram clarified that he was joking and his remark wasn’t directed to them. This wasn’t all as later in the day, right when another journalist was getting ready for the interview, Ram made another off-colour remark to a marketing team member: “Which position should I take now? Doggy or missionary?”
As journalists and representatives of Jio Hotstar present on ground began discussing the situation, another incident of Ram‘s inappropriate behaviour cropped up. He commented on a Jio Hotstar representative’s dress and claimed that it’s distracting him. After this series of sexually inappropriate remarks, the higher-ups of Jio Hotstar were intimated, leading to Ram getting dropped from the interviews the following day, when Mona did all the interviews alone.
On Saturday afternoon, June 21, a representative of Banijay Entertainment, the production house behind Mistry, reached out to members of the media to line up interviews for both Ram and Mona for the following week. They continued to follow up for the same till Sunday evening, but stopped responding on Monday.
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While it’s unclear whether Banijay is still holding interviews across three days for Mistry, involving Ram Kapoor, a source tells us that members of the production house flew down to Mumbai on Friday to resolve the issue with Jio Hotstar. While the streaming platform hasn’t officially confirmed if Ram’s behaviour was the reason behind his withdrawal, Banijay took over the promotions and continued to include Ram Kapoor in the campaign. Neither Banijay nor Ram Kapoor has issued a response, when reached out.
