Malayalam Actor Bhavana Menon Finally Breaks Silence On Sexual Assault And Trauma She Suffered, Says ‘I Wanted My Dignity Back’
Bhavana Menon, in a live interview, said that she was devastated and wanted to get her dignity back after she faced sexual assault
Malayalam actress Bhavana Menon has finally broken her silence on sexual assault and her legal fight over the years. The actress has said that she was devastated and wanted to get her dignity back after she faced the unfortunate and horrifying incident that occurred five years ago.
The recent development comes after Menon had previously confessed about the alleged assault case which involved actor Dileep via social media
Recalling the struggles in a live interview to a private YouTube channel, ‘The Mojo Story’, for on their Women's day special show the actress spoke up, ending her five-year silence, and declared that she would give a strong fight without thinking about the outcome. She also spoke of her journey from a victim to a survivor.
The actress, who had essayed prominent roles in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu movies, said her family, including her husband, close relatives, friends and the general public had supported her during her traumatic period.
Notably, the actress did name any actors accused of assaulting her as the case is in court. She went on to reveal how her life turned upside down in 2017.
For the unversed, in 2017, Bhavana Menon was abducted and sexually assaulted by a group of men in a moving car outside Kochi.
Talking about the heinous incident that occurred five years ago, Menon said, “My whole life was turned upside down. It was constant chaos in my mind, I was constantly asking myself why I. One time I used to think that it was a long nightmare was constantly blaming myself. There were so many times, I desperately wanted to go back to the time before it happened so that I could change everything and my life will be normal again.”
Further, she revealed how her trial turned her from a victim to a survivor, “Then my trial happened in the year 2020 and I had to go to courts for 15 days. Those 15 days when I was in the court, it was a whole different level of traumatic experience. So when I came out of the court on the last day, after 15 hearings, I was feeling like a survivor and realised that I am a survivor not a victim anymore.”
Further, recalling how people were insulting her saying that she had staged all the assault and were blaming her parents, Bhavna said: "I was devastated my dignity was shredded to a million pieces."
"This has not been an easy journey. The journey from being a victim to becoming a survivor. For 5 years now, my name and my identity have been suppressed under the weight of the assault inflicted on me. Though I am not the one who has committed the crime, there have been many attempts to humiliate, silence and isolate me. But at such times I have had some who stepped forward to keep my voice alive," she wrote on Instagram.
