Indian filmmaker shares why Bollywood isn't speaking up about sexual harassment

Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has said a lot of people in Bollywood have remained silent about the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace because they know their opinion will not make a difference until the victims come forward first.

The #MeToo campaign, which sparked off a movement in Hollywood in late 2017, has seen actors along with people from all walks of life share their stories of sexual abuse.

However, only a handful of Bollywood stars have spoken about sexual harassment in the industry and that even without taking names.

Explaining the reason, Kashyap said, “Anywhere, a campaign like this [#MeToo] will be successful is only when the victim speaks up. Then the people can stand up in support of the victim.”

“If the victim won’t speak up, then no one can speak because the others will be branded as disgruntled people trying to do rumour-mongering. It will be a total failure,” the director said during an interview.

The filmmaker also slammed the media for being “obsessed with Bollywood” and said “sexual harassment exists” in every field.

“It exists everywhere. Why are people obsessed with Bollywood?” the 45-year-old filmmaker asked. He added that the film industry should be lauded for being the first to acknowledge and talk about the issue.

Kashyap believes the entertainment fraternity is more courageous than others as its members were the first to speak openly about sexual harassment.

“I think everyone needs to take that clue and find that courage to do something about it,” he added.

When further pressed on the issue of sexual harassment and its existence in the Hindi film industry, Kashyap said he could not offer his opinion on something he did not know about.

“When I was 19-years-old, I spoke about sexual abuse because I went through it. When I had to speak about it, I did... A long time ago. I went on Aamir Khan’s show also and talked about it."

“So, it is not that I haven’t spoken about it. I did speak about it. Today, I have stopped talking because nobody really cares about the movement, everybody cares about the headline,” the director said.