Veteran actress Soni Razdan, recently interacted with the media and said "women should not be judged neither for sharing their #MeToo stories nor for remaining silent," reports news agency PTI. Soni Razdan, who is the mother of Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt, said that the #MeToo movement is a "positive sign" and told news agency PTI: "Living in a patriarchal society I know that such thing is horrifying for any girl and that is why the movement is a positive sign, where people are coming up with their stories." During the media interaction, the 61-year-old actress urged the survivors to call out sexual predators and added, "It is easy to say that if such harassment happens, walk out of your job but people depend on that job, it is about their livelihood, a question of survival. So while we must encourage survivors for coming up with their #MeToo stories, we should not judge women for not sharing their stories."
During the interview, Ms Razdan said the "every organization must have a "zero tolerance" policy towards sexual harassment and that it should work towards ensuring a safe work environment for women. She added, "Every company should have zero tolerance on sexual harassment so that victims feel secure while taking a stand." When someone is humiliating and harassing a woman, he must be knowing that the victim is needy and left with no option but to tolerate such harassment to save the job. It is about livelihood."
The #MeToo movement gained momentum in the Indian film industry, after Tanushree Dutta revived a decade-old controversy with sexual harrassment allegations against Nana Patekar, on the sets of a 2008 film Horn 'Ok' Pleassss, a few weeks ago. So far, several Bollywood personalities such as Nana Patekar, actor Alok Nath, filmmaker Vikas Bahl, Housefull 4 director Sajid Khan, filmmaker Subhash Ghai and poet-lyricist Vairamuthu have been outed as alleged sexual predators.
In solidarity with the #MeToo survivors, film associations such as the Cine And TV Artistes' Association (CINTAA), the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) and the Federation Of Western India Cine Employees or FWICE, have already taken steps against celebrities outed as alleged sexual predators.
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