Actor Daisy Irani Reveals She Was Raped As A Child Star, All When She Was Just 6

If you’ve been paying any attention to the news and headlines, you’d know that cases of child molestation and exploitation are on a rise. Rampant, almost. Especially with kids and minors working in the entertainment industry and the disgraceful Papon incident only goes to denote how.

Yes, we are yet to reach a concluding verdict but nothing takes away from the fact that the episode exposed a side of the showbiz that feeds on the innocence and naivety of the under-aged. Having said that, it is not like things like these didn’t happen in the past years, only they were not spoken/reported. But all that is changing and for an unavoidable reason…

Veteran actor Daisy Irani, child actor of films like Boot Polish and Naya Daur, has revealed that she was raped when she was just 6-years-old. 

In an exclusive interview to Mumbai Mirror, Irani has broken her silence about how she was violated by her own ‘guardian’ and it’s unimaginable. She said, 

“The man who did this was supposed to be my guardian. He accompanied me to a film shoot (Hum Panchhi Ek Dal Ke) in Madras .

One night in the hotel room he violated me, hit me with a belt and warned me that he would kill me if I ever told anyone about what had happened.”

And the little kid then believed him. Coerced into movies by an ambitious mother when she was only four, Irani–maternal aunt to Farhan, Zoya, Farah and Sajid–has worked multiple shifts to star in over 50 films. She was last seen in Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone multi-starrer Happy New Year.

It’s been years, sixty to be precise, since that unfateful night but Irani still remembers the ‘killing pain’, albeit without a trace of self-pity. 

“The next morning, I was back at the studio as if nothing had happened. My mother was hell-bent on making me a star. For years, I couldn’t tell her about what he had done.”

So, why did she decide to relive her trauma for all these years you’re wondering?

For the large number of children working via films, TV and talent shows. She wishes to leave a cautionary tale for parents to keep their child safe, away from evil eye. In fact, she was not afraid then and she’s not afraid now. 

Hopefully, this will help the lost souls find the way back home. And as far as the entertainment industry is concerned, it’s high time we have a regulatory body that can monitor and protect the rights of child artists.