#MeToo movement that shocked the Hollywood took much longer than expected to reach Bollywood.
Many Bollywood actresses like Kangana Ranaut and Radhika Apte came forward to share their stories of harassment by the powerful men of Bollywood industry. Yet, the impact of these revelations is negligible to what impact they created in Hollywood.
Recently, former Miss India Universe and Aashiq Banaya Apne actor, Tanushree Dutta opened up to News18 about how she was one of the first people in the history of B-Town to speak up about her own #MeToo experience in Bollywood.
Tanushree Dutta had spoken up in 2008 about harassment by Nana Patekar on the sets of Horn OK Please. She had said that Nana tried to push her and intimidate her on the sets of the film.
She spoke up recently about the incident, again:
“When I had complained about the same to the producer, director and told them to ask him (Nana Patekar) to stay away from me, they didn’t pay heed. Just because I was new to the film industry, whether or not it was required, let’s do an intimate scene with her”
In 2009, Nana Patekar and film’s producers held a conference and levied counter allegations on Tanushree.
According to Zee News, Nana Patekar said,
“Tanushree is my daughter’s age and I have no clues about what made her say such things about me. I have been a part of this film industry since the last 35 years and haven’t had anyone saying such things about me ever”
Now after 10 years, in an interview with Zoom TV, Tanushree opened up. She spoke about the incident and alleged that while everyone is aware of Nana Patekar’s behavior with women on set, there is no one to report on it or take action.
“When you are in the industry you hear so many stories about these actor. But these things never take surface because they are PR packaged very well. They will give some money to some poor farmers. How much they do and how much they don’t know, No one knows but all this is just for show.”
She also added on why more actresses are not coming forward to talk about their harassment stories:
“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.
Many people took to Twitter to support her so that her voice is heard:
Surprisingly, no one is talking about Nana Patekar misbehaving with Tanushree Dutta on the sets of Horn Ok Please. The woman has broken her silence after a decade of suffering.
— Aparna (@FuschiaScribe) September 25, 2018
The difference between Kangana and Tanushree is very significant. Kangana accused an “innocent” angel, a small father’s boy with green eyes.Tanushree came out against Nana Patekar, a famous hooligan. therefore, human sympathy is on her side.
— cheerful warrior (@cheerfulperson1) September 26, 2018
Becoz in India specially in b’wood it’s not https://t.co/UXyTJ9BDtd she mentioned everyone knew but noone did nething. she might’ve feared that taking such an issue out that too against such a famous actor like Nana patekar may turn things off.
— Chatterjee_Pinky (@sharmistha2405) September 26, 2018
We wonder what Nana Patekar has to say about this?
However, no one can deny the hypocrisy of Bollywood towards allegations of sexual misconduct. They shy away from criticizing it when the alleged accused is amongst their own superstars or powerful men.
If our so-called superstars can’t bring the change in their own industry, how they are going to influence the society to change.
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