Writer-director Vinta Nanda, who has accused actor Alok Nath of rape, on Sunday said the onus is back on her as she now has to undergo medical tests to help investigate the alleged incident that happened nearly two decades ago.
Nanda had filed a complaint on October 19 with the police that Nath allegedly sexually assaulted her 19 years ago during the shooting of her TV show Tara.
A first information report (FIR) was registered at the Oshiwara police station in suburban Andheri on Tuesday. Nath has been booked under Indian Penal Code's Section 376 (rape).
The writer was in conversation with journalist Barkha Dutt at a panel discussion on 'After the #MeToo revolution, what next?' at We The Women event here.
The writer said she took on Nath in the capacity she could, but lacked courage to approach the police back then.
Nanda said the silence within her had manifested in several different ways, all of which came out after she went public with her story.
"Silence manifests in different ways. If you're not the kind of person to be silent, if you are the person who confronts things and deals with them in an empowered way, you are worse off dealing with silence within you because you've internalised something which isn't natural to you at all.
"I attribute my attitude of mistrust and negativity with which I've lived it to silence, which got released when I posted that on Facebook. A lot of my friends ask me today what has happened to you, we are having cinema conversations with you now," she added.
Also present at the panel discussion were filmmaker Paromita Vohra, Sister Jesme and Mahima Kukreja.
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