(calming music)
(Indian meditation music)
- When he's teaching class, everybody else
is sweltering at up to 120 degrees,
but he actually has a personal air conditioner
blowing cold air to the back of his head.
(Indian meditation music)
- [Liz] We had people passing out during class.
We had dehydration.
- You have to really dig and find something inside yourself
to actually stay and be able to bear it.
(intense music)
- [Bikram] They want to amputate his leg, as a President!
For this, I give him seven hydropathic treatment.
Bikram Yoga in the bathtub.
(intense music)
- [Mark] We actually contacted the Nixon Library,
gave them the time frame when this allegedly happened.
The name, "Bikram Choudhury" did not come up once.
No evidence of that at all.
(intense Indian music)
- Everything he taught was the lesson of his master.
(intense Indian music)
He told that 26+2 Yoga is Bikram Yoga,
that is wrong.
That is basically based on my master's booklet.
(intense music)
- Teacher Training is a feeder system
into the Bikram franchise.
That's basically like the cash cow for Bikram Yoga.
The only way you can open a licensed, chained Bikram studio
is by going through training.
And Bikram would hold these trainings
in various hotels around the world.
I've seen rooms with up to 500 people in them.
(intense music)
- [Trisha] And his business strategy
has made Bikram Choudhury a rich man.
Living the life of a star, complete with a whole fleet
of classic cars he's restored himself.
It doesn't seem very yogi-like.
- [Bikram] Different which kind of yogi.
I'm American yogi! (laughing)
- [Trisha] Beverly Hills yogi, to be exact.
(piano music)
- You were not allowed to wear any green.
The color green was banned.
- When you think about, these people
are starving, and they're sleep deprived,
and then this yoga just wipes you out.
You're ripe for whatever wants to be entered in next.
- The way that they shaped that world for us,
we grew to understand that the only way
that you could be a good teacher, was through him.
(piano music)
He just kept saying, "I'm gonna have you this time."
(piano music)
I thought, "He's going to rape me."
- He grabbed the back of my head and started to kiss me.
I immediately pulled away, and he said,
"it's okay, it's okay", and then he grabbed my head
and pulled me back in and stuck his tongue in my mouth.
(piano music)
- He had people around him who,
their financial livelihood depended
upon keeping the silence.
- [Jakob] I know for a fact, he abused a lot more
than six women, because I've talked
to many other women who he's abused.
(piano music)
(ominous music)
- [Male News Anchor] He's accused of firing his lawyer
for investigating claims of sexual harassment.
(ominous music)
- From the time we decided to bring the lawsuit,
it took three years to get the case to trial.
(ominous music)
I got brutally and mercilessly hauled into his room and told
unless I resigned, there and then,
bad things were going to happen to me.
- They found in Micki's favor on every single claim.
Unanimously, which is extraordinary.
- [Female News Anchor] Bikram Choudhury never paid
the judgment against him.
Authorities believe the 69 year old Choudhury
has hidden assets and he has left the country.
(ominous music)
- And anybody who knows about his actions
and still goes to his Teacher Trainings
or carries his name, or does anything under his banner,
I hope people wise up.
(ominous music)
- Do you think anything's changed?
He's back down in Mexico right now,
openin' up a Teacher Training,
and studios are still sending girls to him.
(ominous music)