Renuka Shahane revealed facing harassment early in her career, recalling how a producer once propositioned her and how women risk professional retaliation for resisting advances
Renuka Shahane
Actor Renuka Shahane recently opened up about the harassment and inappropriate behaviour she faced from a producer in the early years of her career. The actress, known for her powerful performances in films like Hum Aapke Hain Koun and TV shows like Circus, revealed that harassment was not limited to outsiders but also came from people within the industry. She said even Raveena Tandon had to stay vigilant for her safety on film sets despite belonging to a film family.
Renuka Shahane recalls traumatic experience
In an interview with Zoom, Renuka recalled a traumatic experience with a film producer. “A producer came to my home and made a proposition. He told me that he was married but asked me to become the brand ambassador of a saree company and said he would give me a stipend every month for living with him. My mom and I were aghast.”
The actress revealed that she refused the proposition, after which the producer offered it to someone else. She added that sometimes powerful people make it difficult for those who resist their advances. “Sometimes, when you refuse someone’s advances, they take revenge and tell others not to hire you. That’s the danger. It hasn’t happened to me, but it can happen.”
She added that if a victim complains, she is often met with retaliation being removed from projects, harassed by the accused, or even denied payment for work done. “It’s a club that comes together and tries to victimise the victim more,” she said.
Raveena changed rooms every day for safety
In the same interview, Renuka also shared an example involving Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon. She said that even the Mohra actress had to be extremely cautious to protect herself from predators during her peak years. “Raveena was a big heroine and came from the industry, but she told me that during outdoor shoots, they would change rooms every day so that nobody knew where they were staying, to avoid problems,” Renuka said. She added that actresses often faced male actors or producers knocking on their doors at night, and even such precautions didn’t always help.
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