Talking about harassment in India is attached to a lot of shame, says Sonam Kapoor

Leading Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor stated that there is a lot of shame associated with speaking up about sexual harassment in India.

“Unfortunately in India, there’s a lot of shame attached to it. If something happens to you, you just smile and pretend to be dumb,” she told an Indian daily in response to a question if something like #MeToo and #TimesUp campaign is happening in India.

“You just ignore it, pretend it didn’t happen because if you speak about it, you will get into more trouble. You are conditioned to think that way. It becomes a blemish on you,” she added.

Talking about her own experience of getting molested, the Neerja-starlet said, “I remember when I spoke about what happened to me when I had gone to a theatre to watch a Raveena Tandon film. A man came behind me and molested me. And people said that’s not molestation. This is harassment.”

“And somebody from my team said that why are you speaking about this, your movie is coming out,” she said further.

Sonam shed light upon the “preconceived notions” regarding women that exist in India and said that it will take time for these perceptions to change completely.

"You want your women going to temples, be the girl next door, wear a sari, be pure. It’s shocking. Such a contradiction in our country. You want to watch songs where women are gyrating to lyrics which are so suggestive, and at the same time wearing shalwar kameez and doing Pooja," the 32-year-old actress stated.