Hyderabad based journalist Swetha Reddy has accused four organisers of popular reality show Bigg Boss Telugu of cheating her and indirectly demanding sexual favours. The four accused men are staff members of Telugu channel Star Maa and the Banjara Hills police station in Hyderabad has filed a cased against them under IPC section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).
Swetha is the executive editor of Telugu news channel News Republic TV. She told The News Minute that she was approached by representatives of the channel in March to participate in the upcoming season of Bigg Boss Telugu. They told her that she was selected because she was “fiery” and popular on YouTube. Swetha agreed to appear on the show.
After multiple meetings with different show coordinators, Swetha discussed the fees and signed the bond papers. However, she did not receive her copy of the agreement papers despite checking with the reps repeatedy, who assure her that she was part of the show.
Finally, Swetha met with Shyam, a Star Maa programming producer, on 4 June. This was when she was allegedly asked lewd and unwarranted questions, including why she was interesting in joining the show.
“I told him it wasn’t me, but the show organisers who had approached me to be a part of the show. He then asked me what I would do in order to satisfy the show’s boss. I got furious. Shyam told me that in order to be in the show I need to satisfy the boss. He then fat-shamed me and asked me what I was doing in order to lose weight. I told him Bigg Boss is a mind game and that my weight had nothing to do with it. He again told me that I needed to lose weight to impress the boss,”Swetha Reddy
Shyam allegedly did not clarify who the “boss” was. Shwetha then approached the police and a criminal case has been filed against the four accused under Section 354 of IPC (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty.)
“There are other female contestants also who have been approached inappropriately by the show organisers. They have cheated and harassed me and I believe that it’s important I come out in the open and bring the issue to the notice of people. I would never want to go back to the show and in fact such reality shows on television should be banned.”Swetha Reddy
Star Maa and Bigg Boss Telugu have yet to respond to the allegations.
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