Former actress Tanushree Dutta has come out in the open and reminded her #MeToo colleagues in Bollywood that she never got any support from anybody when she spoke about her sexual harassment in public and named a big star.
Instead of people trying to shame the star, she was hounded out of the industry and she developed a phobia to be on the sets, ultimately losing out a career that could have panned differently.
While speaking to News18, Tanushree Dutta has reminded Bollywood that she hasn’t been given justice despite speaking out clearly against sexual harassment and naming the person who did it. Speaking about the incident, she again clearly recounted what exactly happened with her.
Describing the on-set encounter and harassment on the sets of Horn Ok Please, Tanushree recounted to News18.com, Describing the on-set encounter with the actor, she says, “He was trying all kind of intimidation tactics to rattle me. He was grabbing me by the arms, pushing me around, then he would ask the choreographers to move and teach me how to dance, and the next thing I know he wanted to do an intimate sequence with me. It was ridiculous.”
Tanushree claims that the said actor was not supposed to be a part of the song in the first place and her contract clearly stated that it was a “solo” dance sequence. “I was literally cornered and I was protesting that I don’t want to do that intimate dance step with him because I was uncomfortable with his proximity on set.”
When Tanushree turned down his advances, the actor allegedly called the members of a political party on the set to intimidate her. “They came and broke my car. It was a mob violence situation which I never faced before,” she claims.
Tanushree says that she soon developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and even the thought of going on a film set would petrify her. “I got some 30-40 film offers after the controversy but I was suffering from such major fear that I would not even want to go on a film set. Because when you go through such experience you think everybody is like that. You refuse to believe that I have worked with good people also.”
Post the controversy, Tanushree gradually faded away from the public eye. She was last seen in Jag Mundhra’s Apartment in 2010. Tanushree is still crying out for justice; she wants the case to be taken up as sexual harassment. Still, there’s deafening silence all around.
“The entire industry saw what happened but there was not one word of condemnation from anybody. Every single person in this country remembers my incident and this was something on national TV for three days but even today there’s a stoic silence on that. So, my question is, ‘Who is going to believe these hypocrites?’ These are the people who stand up and raise their voice against women empowerment,” says Tanushree as she calls out Bollywood’s deafening silence over sexual harassment.
