Daily Times

Mallika Sherawat, who shocked the audience with her uninhibited expression of sexuality in 2004’s ‘Murder’ says the image came with a price as people, including directors and co-stars, thought she would easily “compromise”.

In an interview with PTI, Mallika says, “There were so many accusations and judgements on me. If you wear short skirts, kiss on screen then you’re a fallen woman with no morals. Men tend to take liberties with you. This happened with me too.

“I was thrown out of projects because heroes would say ‘why can’t you be intimate with me? You can do it on screen, what’s the problem in doing that with me in private?’ I’ve lost so many projects. It’s very reflective of the society, what women deal with in our country.”

The 41-year-old actor says she was aware that her film choices were unconventional and believes she could have done much better if she “wasn’t swimming against the tide”.

“I’m a very headstrong woman, I can’t compromise. I’ve a lot of pride and self respect. There were times when directors have called me and said ‘come to me at 3 am.’

“I was so scared to talk about it because I thought they are going to blame me, that I must’ve behaved in such a way that prompted the director to say this. There is that victim blaming mentality which exists in our society and I always felt scared to talk about these things.The episode, which recently went online, features the story of a crazy stalker from Haryana who tried to kill the actor before the police nabbed him.

“He used to tell me, why do you wear short skirts, you’re giving Indian culture a bad name, why can’t you wear sari. I thought why are you telling me what to wear and is this an invitation for you to misbehave with me?

“I thought, ‘let’s do this episode’, even though it was traumatic to relive that again. In the episode we talked about self defence. I had to put my story out there,” she adds.

Published in Daily Times, July 5^th 2018.