As #MeToo in Bollywood continues to gather more voices, several actors have spoken about the relevance of such a movement in the industry. In a recent interview, actor Saif Ali Khan supported the movement and opened about his own harassment experience decades ago.
Speaking to PTI, Khan said, “I have also been harassed in my career, not sexually, but I have been harassed 25 years ago and I am still angry about it.” He added, “Most people don’t understand other people. It is very difficult to understand other people’s pain. I don’t want to talk about it because I am not important today. Even when I think about what happened to me I still get angry. Today, we have to look after women.”
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Khan whole-heartedly supported the movement saying that “people who have sexually harassed and abused women should pay for it.”
“We all need to have the same attitude. I don’t want to work with them. We have to understand that how these people are behaving, it is not okay, it is disgusting,” said Khan, whose upcoming film Bazaar, directed by Gauravv K. Chawla, is slated for a release on October 26.
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In an interview with The Times of India, Khan also spoke about what he would do if someone attempted to harass his daughter, Sara Ali Khan. Khan said, “If someone asks my daughter to come to see him at Madh Island, I will go with her and punch that man in the face. If she tells me this guy said this to me, he will then be fighting me in the court. I am sorry, but that’s my reaction to it. He wouldn’t dare do it again. Every girl should have that kind of security.”
Thus far, Bollywood’s #MeToo movement has witnessed allegations against several veterans and bigwigs, such as Alok Nath, Subhash Ghai, Sajid Khan, Vikas Bahl, Rajat Kapoor, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, among others. The movement arrived at Bollywood’s doorstep after Tanushree Dutta decided to voice her accusations of sexual harassment against Nana Patekar once again. While shooting for the film Horn OK Pleassss in 2008, Patekar had allegedly requested the choreographer and the director to alter the script and introduce an intimate scene with Dutta.
