Campion says she was not sexually harassed

Jane Campion. Photo / AP

New Zealand's Oscar-winning film director Jane Campion says she was not sexually harassed by the husband of a film festival director in India, contrary to media reports yesterday.

The Times of India reported Campion, who won an Oscar in 1993 for her screenplay for The Piano, and Pakistani director Ayesha Arif Khan, had complained about being sexually harassed by Bhaskar Deb, whose wife organised the India International Women Film Festival, held in New Delhi in December.

Campion issued a statement today saying that was wrong.

"I was not sexually harassed by the festival director's husband and did not make that allegation.

"However at least two other delegates I spoke to and a third I heard about, did have bad experiences with the festival director's husband and I hear they went on to make allegations of sexual harassment.

"My own experience of the organisers of the film festival was that they made promises to me which they failed to keep: failure to meet me or any of the other delegates that I spoke to on arrival at the airport, failure to pay for my airline tickets, cancelling the premiere of my film Bright Star at the last moment.

"Never in my entire experience has a film festival been so fraudulently presented and organised. It's a shame for the film makers, the audience, the funding bodies of the countries involved as well as the Indian Government who, it appears from the advertising, sponsored them to some degree.

"I was keen to go to India because of my warm and long relationship with the country and fondness of my Indian friends, which remains untouched by this episode, even deepened as they have helped me to pursue a positive outcome."

- NZPA