Vikramaditya Motwane on Phantom's dissolution post #MeToo: We could've handled it better | Exclusive

Vikramaditya Motwane was one of the founders of Phantom Studios, that shut down in 2018

Vikramaditya Motwane is the creator as well as the producer of the period drama web series Jubilee, that dropped on Amazon Prime Video recently. The series is also directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, while it is produced by his company Andolan Films, Phantom Studios and Reliance Entertainment.

Interestingly, Motwane was one of the founders of Phantom Studios, alongside Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl and Madhu Mantena. The company's first production was the period romance Lootera (2013), directed by Motwane. Phantom Films shut down following allegations of negligence, dealing with a sexual harassment case against Vikas Bahl in 2017. Prior to that, it was a company rolling out quality films after another.

During our Sit With Hitlist conversation with Motwane, we recalled an interview about Phantom, where he had compared it to Pixar, in terms of credibility and ambition: "Very ambitious! Peak-Phantom was something else. Eventually, we would have all perhaps gone our own ways, anyway. Maybe running our own companies under the umbrella of Phantom as the larger studio. It was an unfortunate end to what was a good journey.

"Interestingly enough, I actually met Tanmay Bhat and Rohan [Joshi] and we were talking about how peak-AIB and peak-Phantom happened at the same time. Some great stuff went down." The comedy collective, AIB, similar to Phantom, folded up, following a #MeToo storm.

Also read: Vikramaditya Motwane: My grandfather produced a film called Andolan with a young Kishore Kumar | Exclusive

Is there anything that Motwane thinks they could have done differently over the workplace sexual harassment issue? "Externally, we could have [handled it better]. But again, this is in hindsight. If you're going through something you haven't before, you may not know how to handle it. From a professional, empathetic and personal point of view - I am saying all three - we could have done better."

Watch the full interview here.