#MeToo movement has sent shock waves to the industry. Names of many Bollywood fraternity members have been called out in the wake of MeToo movement- filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani's being the latest one. And now, actress Swara Bhasker has opened up about her side of the story. At a panel discussion on the life of Harvey Weinstein at & PriveHD’s Prive Soiree, which also had Dia Mirza as a panelist, Swara said, “It took me 6-8 years to realise when I heard someone else talk about their experience of harassment at a panel discussion like this. I was like God, what happened to me 3 years ago was actually sexual harassment at work place! I never realised it because like you said, I escaped. Because the person did not touch me and I managed to ward it off. I would just tell myself that this director is being... whatever, but that is not the full truth. The director was not being an idiot or an ass, he was being a predator.”
The Veere Di Wedding actor further revealed that she wasn’t able to recognise that pattern or behaviour because as our culture doesn't teach that. She said, “We do not teach our girl children to recognise predatory behaviour for what it is. There is so much of culture of silence, around sexuality in India, around the issue of sexual harassment, actually not just In India, everywhere around the world that we are just going through are lives without recognising it properly. We just recognise the discomfort.”
She further added, “It is really sad, because then slowly I began to realise that I am just not recognising it. Because we are so endured to handle and manage things. Since childhood, if anything happens there is no one to tell you that this is sexual harassment. “
She concluded saying, “First of these things is completely inhospitable and hostile society and a culture that actively or sub-consciously enables predators... We should use this moment to not just talk about the one predator that got caught and got glamourised. But we should also talk about the culture that enables these predators to reach the position of power they do. So, it’s also a question of making ourselves aware of many things that go into legitimising predatory behaviour.”
Image Source: The Janambhumi