“Respect Women And Let Them Live”, Actress Renuka Shahane Comes Out In Support Of Tanushree

Hum Aapke Hain Kaun actor Renuka Shahane supported Tanushree and her accusations against Nana Patekar, with a powerful Facebook post.

Looking at recent instances with campaigns and trending hashtags, everywhere people are coming out of their fears and boldly talking about harassments and sexual assaults they have undergone. With the #metoo movement or the much recent #WhyIDidntReport, more and more people, including celebrities like Padma Lakshmi are opening up.  

The wave has hit Bollywood as well. After 10 years actress Tanushree recently accused Nana Patekar of harassment during the shooting of the film ‘Horn OK Pleassss’. According to her, Nana Patekar, though not in a particular song, wanted to be a part of it, started teaching his own steps to Tanushree, and even demanded an intimate scene with her. Not wanting to be a part of any of this, Tanushree walked out of the film. And now finally she has spoken up about this terrible incident of hers.

Tanushree is getting varied support from the people and the industry. On social media, if many believe her, there are a lot more who are doubting her claims. While celebrities like Farhan Akhtar, Twinkle Khanna, Priyanka Chopra, Swara Bhaskar, and others are showing their support, Farah Khan is happily shooting Houseful 4 with Nana Patekar. Whereas many other big names are keeping mum with the fear of their upcoming movies getting banned due to the controversy. Actor Atul Kulkarni tweeted about the need to say sorry to women for all the injustice men do to them. There is indeed a need for more men like him from the industry to support Tanushree and many women like her.  

as a ‘man’ if I was taught only one word, ‘sorry’ and was made to say just that one word till my last breath, to all the women in the history of mankind (?!) on behalf of all the men;
I wonder if it would still make me die even a bit peaceful….

— atul kulkarni (@atul_kulkarni) September 29, 2018

But one person whose support stood out was that of Doordarshan’s Surabhi presenter Renuka Shahane. Having acted in Bollywood films like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and being a part of Indian television for many years, she is well aware of the industry politics. Understanding Tanushree, and as a fellow actress Renuka Shahane took to Facebook, and wrote a lengthy post with 3 sold points saying that what happened with Tanushree was wrong.

Imagine your daughters in her place

With her first point, Renuka focused on women in films and how their voices get neglected by egoistic men. In Tanushree’s case four men – the actor, director, choreographer, and even the producer ganged up against her. She was uncomfortable doing a particular scene but none bothered to understand that. Renuka strongly said that the workplace is not to terrorise women, instead, it must have a healthy atmosphere.

She says that a movie is about teamwork; for the benefit of the actor, the dance step could have been changed if she was uncomfortable with it. The movie wouldn’t have gone under a loss just because of that. But that didn’t happen. Renuka has directly questioned the movie crew through her post: would they have done the same if it was their daughters in Tanushree’s place?

‘Pride of Maharashtra’, seriously?

Secondly, Renuka is totally against the harassment of Tanushree and her parents by some members of a political party who wanted her to apologise for harming the ‘pride of Maharashtra’. She clearly expressed her rage when she asked, how can Maharashtra’s pride not be harmed by forcing a girl to do dance step she is uncomfortable with? Renuka wants respect for women and a safe place for her to live her life.

Games of men in power

Thirdly, Renuka sadly wondered how all these things affected no-one except for Tanushree’s own career. All the men who traumatized Tanushree have scared her, but they are happily leading their lives doing plenty more films. They are a true example of the privilege of men in power!

Renuka concluded her post by saying that powerful people with big egos ganging up against one person is bullying. That’s not right, as it dehumanizes the victim. She clearly proclaims, that Tanushree has been very brave, but not the ‘victors’ of the day!

Read the full FB post here.

Image source: YouTube

Madhura Chandana

Apart from being the Associate Editor at Women's Web, where I get to read,

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