CINTAA (Cine and TV Artiste’s association) recently sent out an apology for not taking action when Tanushree Dutta had filed her complaint in 2008 against alleged harassment by Nana Patekar. Actor Sushant Singh, who is now the general secretary of the body, said, “At least we can register our protest that something happened to our member. All the associations should be involved because the director was there, the DOP was there, choreographer was there, producer was there. All associations should ask their members what happened and if something inappropriate happened, the least we can do is reprimand. But that was not done, hence the apology.”
The association hasn’t got more than six such cases in the last three years and Singh believes that the stigma about sexual harassment in the country is the reason behind it. Also he says that there have barely been any complaints against major players of the industry. But he urges actors to come out and voice their experiences.
He says, “The process is very simple. Our phone numbers are available 24/7, most of our members have our personal numbers also. The office is active from 10:30 am till 7:45 pm. If you call the office, they contact us because sexual harassment is an emergency. It has happened just now, so now is the right time to take action and that’s what we will do. We have repeatedly sent messages to our members that do not hesitate to call 100 whenever you feel threatened by any gesture of any male/ female. Just dial 100 and we will support you fully. At times people have been thrown out of jobs for repeated complaints against them. One production executive was thrown out by a production house.”
He says the only way to make the workplace safer for women is by creating example, by doing what Hollywood did with Weinstein.
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