Bollywood also has its fair share of sexual assaulters
KARACHI: It is an open secret that Bollywood also has its fair share of powerful men — actors, directors or producers — who have assaulted women, physically or sexually, in their lifetime. In fact, some still do, protected by the ‘bros’ in the industry and women who are often too afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs.
Ever since the movement #MeToo began, Bollywood actors and actresses have come out and agreed on the presence of assault in the industry but none so far has named any one. But actor Tanushree Dutta just broke this deafening silence, by naming a man who is one of the most celebrated actors in the industry, Nana Patekar.
According to Dutta, Patekar had assaulted her in 2009 on the sets of Horn ‘Ok’ Please. She also further mentioned that she had reported the incident to the producer of the film but to no avail.
It is only ironical that this revelation comes just hours after TV legend Bill Cosby was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for sexually assaulting a woman at his Philadelphia mansion 14 years ago. It took stories of 60 women who claimed to be assaulted by Cosby for him to finally get a jail term on account of an assault of one of those 60 women.
In the wake of this, it is safe to assume that Patekar or the likes of him will go on to do movies and make a brand for themselves before accusations of assault are taken seriously.
Rimsha Ansari
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2018.
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