Watch: Kalki speaks on why Bollywood actresses don’t speak about sexual harassment

Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin is known for speaking her mind – be it talking about women empowerment or being sexually abused as a child at the age of nine. This time in an interview to BBC News, Bollywood actor and gender right activist Kalki Koechlin, revealed the reason why women in Bollywood are not speaking about sexual harassment:

It is a very difficult step to take. Because it’s their career on the line. You are dealing with hundreds of people throwing their opinions at you. It can really shake a person emotionally. I know several girls who are newcomers in Bollywood- struggling, going for auditions, who are constantly being discriminated because of the way they look.

There are things that no one is reporting, and nobody is researching because there is no famous person to make a headline about it.

Men have been pretty clueless about the fact that every woman has been harassed in some way or the other. We are just so numb to it. Like, if you get touched in a bus, we don’t even think anymore about it.

As soon as I talk about my personal experiences, it becomes a big headline. So, I have chosen to steer away from that because it’s too much pressure on me emotionally.

I have daily battles that I am facing. For example, why am I having to wear this outfit? Does it really have anything to do with the plot? Is the scene there for titillating reasons or to make the plot go forward?

I think it’s important that you have a support group. It can be Online, friends, therapist or family. Both men and women need to have dialogue with each other, not against each other.