Tollywood choreographer Jani Master accused of sexual assault, booked

Hyderabad: A zero-FIR has been filed against popular Tollywood choreographer Shaik Jani Basha alias Jani Master, by the Raidurgam police on Sunday, September 15 on charges of rape, criminal intimidation, and causing hurt to a person.

The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by a 21-year-old choreographer woman who had previously worked with Shaik Jani Basha, since 2017. According to the complaint, the accused choreographer has been sexually assaulting the victim since 2019, including forcefully coercing the victim into sex and threatening her not to tell anyone, while she was travelling for work with the accused and her parents away from her.

The complaint accuses Jani Master of multiple instances of sexual assault, public harassment, coercion to marry and convert, career threats, property damage, and criminal intimidation. The accused choreographer’s wife was also named in the complaint, accusing her of attacking the victim.

The Raidurgam police have received the complaint, registered a zero-FIR, and have transferred the case to Narsingi police station, for further investigation.

The accused choreographer known as Jani Master had gained recognition early in his career in a popular Telugu dance reality show ‘Dhee‘, and has worked as a choreographer in a list of Telugu and Tamil films. He has choreographed several viral songs including ‘Butta Bomma‘, ‘Srivalli‘, ‘Arabic Kuthu‘, ‘Kaavaalaa‘, etc.

The case is incidentally submitted in the backdrop of the South Indian film industry being shaken by the revelations of sexual assault instances in the Malayalam film industry, following the publishing of the Hema Committee report.

Several Telugu film actors and technicians have raised their concerns about sexual assault across film industries, with leading South Indian actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu demanding the establishment of a similar committee in the Telugu industry to investigate sexual violence against women in cinema.