Former Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta’s recent allegations of sexual harassment against veteran actor Nana Patekar has taken the world of media by storm. In a shocking statement, the 34-year-old actress held Patekar responsible for abusing her on the sets of Horn Ok Pleassss in 2008.
Explaining the horror experience, Tanushree revealed that Nana Patekar literally ‘lurked’ around on the sets while she was filming a dance number. She went on to say that the actor grabbed her by her arms and pushed her around. Not only that but he started to teach her dance steps all by himself.
While Nana Patekar has laughed off the accusations and is willing to deal with it legally, Bollywood has been divided into two halves over the matter. Interestingly, the first one includes some massive names such as Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan who have chosen not to take a side. And the second one saw some support for Tanushree in the name of Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhasker and a few others.
Now, as per an India Today report, Tanushree has another leading lady by her side.
Speaking to a website about the episode, Kangana Ranaut has hailed Tanushree Dutta for being brave enough to speak up on the matter. She firmly believes that her statements will help raise awareness about the growing disrespect towards women in the country.
“I am not here to pass judgement. That’s neither my place nor my intention. I appreciate her courage to speak about alleged harassment that has been caused to her. It’s her and the accused’s fundamental right to speak about their experience of the same situation. Such dialogue is very healthy and it will bring about a lot of awareness.”
Kangana, who has always been a rebel standing up for the right, also said that “Raja betas” of our country are the results of being pampered by their parents. She added that “they even lack basic etiquettes like lifting the lid before peeing”.
“Raja beta needs to be told the meaning of ‘NO’ as well. It’s in the interest of society that the Raja betas are told what their parents fail to tell them. They must know that the fundamental human rights are the same for men and women. Trust me, it will be news to some of them.”
Signing off, she urged more women to speak up about their traumatic experiences which would work as an effective tool in injecting fear in the minds of the abusers.
“The kind of rape, harassment and teasing news reports we hear every other day, I wonder if some of these zombies out there qualify to be a human. We need to talk about it and we all must share our stories. It will also bring a sense of shame and fear in them as they will know a girl can stand for herself at any point in time. Our life stories have no expiry date.”
Though the case is far from over with Nana Patekar preparing to take legal actions, we can smell a significant change in the industry. We hope Tanushree Dutta gets justice if the actor is found guilty.