INDIAN ACTRESSES SPEAK OUT ON HARASSMENT IN BOLLYWOOD
Sexual harassment rife in industry, but actresses reluctant to name and shame perpetrators
WHEN Indian actress Divya Unny flew into the southern state of Kerala in 2015, she thought it was for a business meeting with an award-winning director about a role in his upcoming film.
Instead, she was called to the director ’s hotel room at 9pm, where the man propositioned her for sex and told her she would have to make compromises if she wanted to succeed in the film industry.
“You always hear of actresses getting called by directors to hotel rooms at night, but I didn’t think twice because I was going in with a reference,” she said.
Unny said she rejected the advances of the director, whom she declined to name, and left without a role in the movie. Her accusations were unconfirmed.
Three other women involved in India’s film industry, the world’s largest, said Unny’s experience isn’t unique. But even after allegations of sexual assault and harassment levelled at Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein prompted a wave of similar complaints, Bollywood has been reluctant to name and shame perpetrators.
“The way men are being called out in Hollywood right now, I don’t know if it can happen in India,” said Alankrita Shrivastava, a director, whose last film, Lipstick Under My Burkha, was acclaimed for its examination of women and sexuality.
“In terms of how our psychology is, how patriarchy functions, it is much more entrenched.”
Mukesh Bhatt, who co-heads production house Vishesh Films, said India’s film industry should not be singled out and was limited in what more it could do to prevent harassment.
“What can we do? We cannot do any moral policing,” Bhatt said. “We cannot keep moral cops outside every film office to see that no girl is being exploited.”
The industry also had to be cautious about false allegations, said Bhatt, who was chairman of apex industry body, the Film and Television Producers Guild of India.
“I am not saying men have not been exploitative. They have been for centuries. But, today’s woman is also not as simple as she pretends to be.
“But just as there are good men and bad men, so also there are women who are exploitative and very cunning. Also blatantly shameless to offer themselves.”
He declined to provide any examples.
Kangana Ranaut is one of the few Bollywood actresses who has publicly spoken out about the sexual assault and harassment.
Ranaut, who has appeared in 30 films in the past decade, said she had faced “severe sexual exploitation and harassment at the workplace”.
“I’ve read stories (about harassment) shared by a few prominent people, but most people find it hard to open up about such experiences,” she said. “Victim shaming is common in our society; it’s done brutally and openly.”
According to a survey by the Indian National Bar Association this year, about 70 per cent of Indian women said they would not report sexual harassment at the workplace because they weren’t confident about the complaint mechanism and because of the stigma attached to victims.
Shrivastava said the kind of cinema Bollywood often produced demonstrated its attitude towards sexual harassment and assault.
For example, two of this year’s hit movies — Toilet – Ek Prem Katha and Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya — showed the hero stalking the leading lady, taking pictures of her without her knowledge.
“For decades, we have created cinema where harassment is depicted as love,” Shrivastava said.
“And that reflects the mentality of the creators, that they keep portraying it, and excusing it in the name of commerce.” Reuters