Adnan Al Rajeev: We never put pressure on youngsters

Immediately after being served with a legal notice from the mother of a child, director Adnan Al Rajeev, the defendant in the case, responded to the allegations made by Naila Parvin Pia. The child named Rajjo was allegedly put under mental pressure by the Runout team during the shoot of a television commercial. In a conversation with Dhaka Tribune’s Showtime, the “Bikel Belar Pakhi” director completely denied the allegation, saying, “We’ve been working in the industry for a long time now. Throughout our career, we cast many of the prominent senior and junior artists in the industry but none of them ever made such an accusation against us. There must be some sort of misunderstanding here.” Earlier, in the legal notice served against the director of Runout Films Adnan Al Rajeev, along with his team, Naila claimed that the Runout team discharged her 4 year old son Rajjo from their shooting set instead of casting him, inducing mental stress. She accused the Runout team tagging the incident as a clear violation of human and children’s rights. Adnan, however, said that there was no pressure put on the youngster. “He just couldn’t do what we needed for the shot. Since they are only children, we never put much pressure on them to do anything. Besides, we always keep a number of child artists in the pool as alternatives. Hence we went on to work with another child and that was it,” Adnan said. According to the young director, he is ready to officially reply to the legal notice served on November 5 by a lawyer named Erina Khan on behalf of the child’s mother. “I think the matter hereof could have been resolved with a simple step. She could’ve just come and talk to us regarding the matter,” Adnan added. On the other hand, Pia, the plaintiff, said: “After seeing pictures of my son, the advertisement agency approached us first. I refused them at the first place then decided to agree. They called him at the morning of October 28 for shoot. The shoot was about to start and assistant director Shammi called him to the set. Shammi talked loudly and Rajjo started to cry. Then Shammi said that he will not be able to do the job and told him to leave the set.” Describing their behavior as inhuman and disrespectful, Pia added that she thought they would try to explain themselves to the child and give him some time. She also said that if the agency fails to reply to the notice within the given week, she is ready to take the matter to court.