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Bollywood Will Lose Heroes If We Talk About Sexual Harassment: Richa Chadha Bares It All

byStorypickers
6th December 2017
3 minute read

What started as one woman being brave enough to let the world know of her sexual harassment at the hands of a powerful man, went on to become a widespread movement we all know as #MeToo. Soon after Harry Weinstein was accused of sexual assault by as many as 90 women, other big names in the industry started popping up like a domino effect.

Sexual harassment is not restricted to Bollywood, traces and instances of it have been observed in Bollywood as well.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, when questioned whether a similar movement is possible in our industry too, Punjabi actress, Richa Chadha had some strong opinions.

The actress suggests that the movement doesn’t seem likely to happen immediately, owing to our culture of victim-blaming. She says,

“I don’t see that happening immediately given the culture of naming and shaming in our country. But when it happens, as it is happening in Hollywood right now, the entire power structure will change. People, who you see making feminist films and claiming to be progressive etc, they will all come tumbling down“
“We will lose a lot of heroes and several people will lose their lives’ work, their legacies. I think that’s what people will attack – they can’t attack them monetarily so they will go after the legacies. And it will happen, I would think in the next four-five years.“

She further went to say that Hollywood actors get royalties, which doesn’t happen with Bollywood actors, which is one of the reasons why people are afraid to speak up here.

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She even replied to Prasanto Roy’s tweet claiming that barring Richa Chadha and a select few South Indian actresses, no one has really spoken up about the sexual harassment in Bollywood.

A series of tweets followed the above thread wherein she justified why such an ousting won’t happen in near future.

Moreover, she is of the strong opinion that Bollywood is not the only industry where sexual harassment persists.

“It is very sexy to say, ‘Bollywood, ye gire hue log. They do this for work, they are just a cesspool for parties and all. We have a very fertile imagination when it comes to Bollywood.
But we refuse to look at others. The press has a role in this – they should not be jumping on a hashtag. The press should be consistently creating a support system for the victim to come forward to say ‘this happened to me and he did that’. The judiciary has a role.
I once met a rapist who said ‘mereko to bus saat saal ki sazaa hogi and then I am back to a normal life’, no remorse whatsoever.”
Recently, when the actress was chased by fans on bikes, she expressed her distress on Twitter. So it is safe to say that she is not someone who will let things pass her by without taking any action.
Whether you agree with her opinions or not, you cannot deny the fact that Bollywood hides their dirty secrets and it won’t be long before they all come out.
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