Hollywood is rocked by several sexual harassment stories in the aftermath of revelations about Harvey Weinstein. In fact, the scandal opened up a can of worms about incidents of sexual misconduct occurring in showbiz, with several bigwigs including Kevin Spacey and Brett Ratner been accused of it.
Asked about the issue to Salman Khan, he said he had never heard about casting couch in Bollywood. “Sometimes these things are pushed so much that people tend to believe everyone in the industry is like that. And then a wrong woman is caught. But it is the most disgusting thing ever to exploit or use somebody to get them work. Man or woman. That in exchange of giving someone work, you take their advantage. It’s disgusting.”
Clearly denying casting couch’s existence in Bollywood, Salman said, “I have been here for the longest time and my father (screenwriter Salim Khan) has been here. Till today, I have never heard someone come and say this straight out,” he said.
According to him, flirting is common but exploitation is abominable.
“I have never come across anything like that… Because if I had known, if someone – a lady or a man – comes up to me and says ‘This has happened with us’, I will take (the perpetrator) down to the cleaners.”
When we asked Sunny Leone, who has been active in Bollywood for around five years, she said she has never faced sexual harassment in the film industry.
“With me, nothing like this has happened here. Thank God, I did not have any bad experiences. But I have known people and read things about people facing it. I had my husband Daniel always around me to fill in the nonsense that keeps happening. He did all the filtering, he made sure I was not hurt,” Sunny told PTI in an interview.
While actors like Richa Chaddha, Priyanka Chopra, Kalki Koechlin and Irrfan Khan have spoken out against sexual harassment in the industry, Salman and Sunny chose to stay mum in their own way. We wonder why!
