Trigger Warning: The following article contains details about sexual assault and violence. The details may be traumatic for survivors. Reader discretion is advised.
The year 2017 became synonymous with the #MeToo movement that marked the decline of disgraced media moghul, Harvey Weinstein. Many other exposes followed in Hollywood from Kevin Spacey to Oliver Stone. The movement didn’t gain momentum in Bollywood despite actors like Radhika Apte vociferously supporting the movement.
The former Miss India Universe and Aashiq Banaya Apne actor, Tanushree Dutta opened up to News18 about how, much before #MeToo struck Hollywood, she was probably one of the first people in the history of B-Town to speak up about her own experience.
“The thing is that our country has become so hypocritical, and people constantly ask why #MeToo movement is not happening in India, it won’t happen unless and until you’ll acknowledge what happened with me in 2008,” says Tanushree.
“Everybody saw what happened but the memory and the popular perception of it is that Tanushree Dutta spoke up against harassment and then she was no more...this was something on national TV for three days but even today there’s a stoic silence on that,” she continued. She spoke about how nobody from the industry came forward to condemn what she went through and how they continued to work with the culprit.
In 2008, the incident took place during the filming of a special number on the sets of Horn OK Please. “They came and broke my car. It was a mob violence situation which I never faced before,” she alleged, when she refused to go ahead with a solo dance sequence that made her uncomfortable.
Dutta continued to say that she will not stop bringing up the issue and that there would be no #MeToo movement in Bollywood if what happened to her is pushed under the carpet.
Source: News18
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