Veteran actresses are raising their voices against sexual harassment in the film industry and sharing their experiences. Actresses Khushbu and Radhika have revealed how they faced harassment.
A famous actress was a victim of fraud by a famous actor. She was kidnapped by four people and sexually assaulted in a car. This incident created a sensation in the Malayalam film industry in 2017. After this, a committee headed by retired judge Hema was constituted to investigate the cases of sexual harassment of actresses in films.
This committee had told the actresses that they could speak openly about the sexual harassment they faced and their identities would be kept confidential. After this, many actresses revealed incidents of sexual harassment by actors, directors, and producers.
After the release of this report last week, some senior actresses have not only started talking about the sexual harassment they faced but have also told how they faced it boldly. For example, actress Khushbu said in an interview that when a producer entered her room with wrong intentions, she took off her shoes and put them in front of him and asked where he wanted to kill her - here or in front of the unit.
Similarly, actress Radhika also revealed that cameras are installed in vanity vans even without the knowledge of the actresses. While senior actresses are speaking openly about such incidents, now actress Radhika has revealed in an old interview that she and her sister were forced to do kissing scenes in a film of a famous actor.
Regarding this, actress Radhika had said in her old interview, "Usually, kissing scenes were common in Kamal Haasan's films. Directors and producers were interested in including such scenes to attract young audiences. Therefore, kissing scenes became an unspoken rule in Kamal Haasan's films. Some actresses used to tolerate such scenes, while some actresses hesitated to work in Kamal Haasan's films because of kissing scenes."
"Because of my hesitation for kissing scenes, I reduced working with Kamal Haasan after the film 'Sippikkul Muthu'. Not only me but my sister was also tortured to do lip-lock kissing scenes. When I opposed it, some people got angry with me. Because of this, I had to lose many opportunities."