National Award-winning choreographer Jani Master was on September 15 booked for alleged sexual assault of a 21-year-old colleague. The case against one of the biggest names in the Telugu film industry has been registered at a time when the various sexual harassment charges in the Malayalam film industry, which have come up in the wake of the Justice Hema Committee report, have been creating a mini storm. Actresses like Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Lakshmi Manchu and others have been asking the Telangana government to make public the 2022 sub-committee report on sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the Telugu film industry.
Jani Master, who won the National Award for best choreography in 2022 for Tamil film Thiruchitrambalam, starring Dhanush, and who has worked with top stars in the Telugu, Tamil and Hindi film industries, has been accused of sexually assaulting a lady-choreographer on multiple occasions in his vanity van, on film sets and in outdoor shootings since 2019.