How do you intend to tackle the legal notices sent to you by Nana Patekar and Vivek Agnihotri?
I haven’t really figured out how one tackles a situation where the offender takes a legal recourse. I am the one who is the aggrieved party and they are threatening legal action against me! Isn’t this ironical?
It’s not as if I am speaking about it now. I tried to get justice for myself from every possible organisation. Even the police and the judiciary let me down. When the perpetrator filed a counter-FIR I was advised to just keep quiet about it. ‘Right now you are making the rounds of police stations. If this is going to go to court you will be doing the rounds of the courts for 10 years.’ They said that.
In this country you need a lot of money and patience to fight a legal battle. The criminals have the resources. I was being bullied into dropping my charges. I got no help from any quarters. So I left the country.
Has the situation changed now?
Not much. I am hoping for more voices to come forward and support me. It is a known fact that the entertainment industry is strewn with predators. For years, women have accepted the bullying and harassment as ‘normal.’ Now with the MeToo movement gathering so much support I hope at least some women in the industry will come forward and speak out.
What exactly had happened with Mr Patekar?
It was a dance sequence for a film called Horn Ok Please. He was not part of it. But he insisted on being on the set. He bullied me, crossed all limits of decency. He was pulling my hand, pushing me, shouting at me I had never encountered such boorish behaviour from any of my co-stars before this.
Dimple Kapadia too called Nana ‘obnoxious’?
Yes, but what happened after that? Just a random comment here or there, or powerful voices speaking in ambiguous tones and in parables, isn’t going to help. Men who are predators need to be named and shamed. There are other incidents involving Nana Patekar. He had threatened a man with a gun once. But like me, the man was silenced.
And we have senior personalities like , Salman Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Gajendra Chauhan, Kailash Kher, ... ticking off your allegations?
Men think demeaning and insulting women is their birthright. I was attacked by MNS goons when the incident (with Nana Patekar) happened in 2008. Now also I am being attacked by the same goons. Not much has changed in the 10 years. I am being bullied, maligned and hounded. It wasn’t my intention to draw attention to the incident. I’m here in India for a holiday. I was asked about the sexual harassment at the workplace when giving an interview recently. This is when I spoke about the incident that happened in 2008. I spoke about a lot of other things too, but the media picked only this point. And I am happy. Because a debate has opened up on the whole issue of sexual harassment.
How far are you going to go in this fight?
I am here in India with an open ticket. I am waiting to see where this goes. I am hoping more voices will join me. Otherwise this will come to nothing.
I’ve been on a spiritual quest for 10 years. I’ve experienced all religions, embraced them all to finally embrace no religion at all. I strive to find a meaning to life. Who knows where I will go from here?
