Choreographer Jani Master gets bail in sexual assault case
The Telangana High Court on Thursday granted conditional bail to Tollywood choreographer Jani Master in a case of alleged sexual assault on a junior female colleague.
Amid India’s #MeToo movement which has hit Bollywood hard, actor Dalip Tahil spoke up about the no existence of women’s consent in the industry.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, the 65-year-old actor narrated a ‘behind the scenes’ incident that took place on the sets of a film he was a part of. According to Tahil, he was asked to rip apart a girl’s clothes for a rape scene by the film’s director.
Also read: Unfortunate that my colleagues are fighting: Jackie Shroff on #MeToo
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“Twenty-five years ago, I was doing a similar scene. It was one of those movies that had a rape scene. The director, whose name I won’t take, actually told me, ‘When you’re doing the scene, tear the girl’s clothes apart, do this and that, but we won’t tell her.’ I flatly refused! I said, ‘This is such an immoral thing to do.’ The girl was new, and she had to make a living. I went in the opposite direction: I called the girl and said, ‘Do you know this is what they’re planning to do?’ The director was aghast and almost ran away. The girl was so upset, she burst into tears and ran into a room,” he said.
“In those days, there were no mobile phones, only the raw stock camera, and the director would be in charge. He’d never do it (film her consent), so we got the girl to come out, told her that there would be nothing that wasn’t planned or out of her comfort zone, and we did it. For many years after that, I didn’t do such scenes, until now,” Tahil added.
Read more: Someone tried to rape me during a film shoot: Soni Razdan shares her #MeToo story
Earlier this year, the Baazigar actor made headlines for recording his female co-actor’s consent before filming a rape scene for a web series.
“At the end of the day, the blame comes on the person who’s on the screen. I don’t like to do things without the consent of my colleague,” the actor said.
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