Recently, Aditi Rao Hydari, who is making waves in the Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu film industry, spoke up about her experience and how she grew above it. In an interview with Sunday Guardian, she spoke about how she was out of work for a while because she spoke up against it.
“I did lose work and I cried about it. I didn’t regret it but I cried about it because I felt so upset that this was true and this is how girls are treated. I was like, how dare someone speak to me like that! For about eight months [after the incident] I didn’t get work, but I feel that decision made me stronger in my intention about the kind of work I wanted to do. The year 2013 was difficult for me as it was also the year I lost my father, but from 2014 onwards everything kind of fell into place,” she said.
She further narrated how the experience has made her a stronger person now.
“I feel girls need to empower themselves—the moment you empower yourself, the decision lies with you. If anyone has been misused and they are living with that unhappiness, then they have every right to speak out and they should,” she added.
In the past, actresses like Sruthi Hariharan, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Radhika Apte, Swara Bhasker have opened up about their own experiences and their handling of such situations. In fact, the whole casting couch situation gained more attention after small-time actress Sri Reddy opened a can of worms about the Telugu film industry, accusing many bigwigs from the industry of propositioning sex. However, while many have refuted her claims, her outrageous posts got a dialogue going on the whole practice.
