Payal Ghosh to file FIR against Kashyap for sexual assault

On Saturday, Payal had put out a tweet, accusing Anurag of sexual harassment.

"Anurag Kashyap has forced himself on me and extremely badly," the actor tweeted, while appealing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for help.

In a separate interview, Payal said that the alleged incident happened in 2014-2015 at the time of the making of Anurag's movie Bombay Velvet.

On Saturday night, Anurag denied the allegations and termed them "baseless" in a series of tweets.

Now, in a fresh statement posted by the filmmaker, his lawyer Priyanka Khimani said the allegations are false and that they will take legal action against Payal.

"It is sad that a social movement as important as #MeToo has been reduced to a mere tool for character assassination."

Payal has also said Anurag earlier claimed to have gotten intimate with some actresses who worked with him. She had named actor Richa Chadha and others.

Reacting to this, Richa has shared her lawyer's statement.

"Richa condemns the act of her name being unnecessarily and falsely dragged in a derogatory manner into controversies and allegations being recently raised by third parties," the statement read.

Meanwhile, Anurag's two ex-wives, Aarti Bajaj and Kalki Koechlin have also come out in his support.

Aarti called the allegation against Anurag "cheapest stunt," telling the filmmaker to "keep empowering women as you do."

Kalki, on the other hand, said the director defended her integrity even after their divorce in 2015. "Do not let this social media circus get to you," she wrote.

Separately, actor Kangana Ranaut has supported Payal, saying she also suffered a similar ordeal at the hands of "many big heroes."

The 33-year-old actor, who had a couple of altercations with Anurag in the recent past, added that Bollywood is "full of sexual predators who have fake and dummy marriages, they expect a new hot young girl to make them happy everyday."