The Comfort Of Denial Doesn’t Make The Issue Go Away
Just the other day, I met a friend of mine, who asked me whether VoxSpace was covering the issue of Sri Reddy? What is the issue of Sri Reddy, this is a thought which I pondered upon for long.? And if it is not just the actress itself, and that the issue is bigger and applicable to perhaps a whole industry? Why then is it being attributed to just one individual? Casting Couch is an issue, Sri Reddy is perhaps just one of the thousand people who’ve spoken about it at different points in point. Coming back to the question though, was I going to address the issue of Sri Reddy? The woman? Nope. Obviously not, because I know nothing about her. Except for the news feeds in my timelines, shamefully written rants about her, click bait inducing video thumbnails, I truly do not know her. Maybe I could’ve reached out to her and sought an interview. But it made sense to me, to leave it to the “professionals” (journalists, reporters and news channels) to talk it out with her. Then the brouhaha happened. Accusations were made, incidents were claimed, language was misspoken (embarrassingly by the news presenters sometimes), and reputations were put at stake. And thus, what started as a moniker, Sri Reddy’s issue, became in truth the “Sri Reddy” issue. Even so, we let it pass.
We were unsure. Not about the issue. Of course, Casting Couch in movie industry exists and is rampant. If someone tells you anything otherwise, they are fools. They have no idea. Or perhaps they belong to the elite class of film industry, travelling in their Porsches and Mini Coopers, and scurrying through the midnight roads of Jubilee Hills, looking at lives, oh so romantically, from behind their rose-tinted back seat windows. Well, if that is the case, they aren’t entirely fools. They are just plain ignorant. They are simple souls, unscathed by the laments of the underclass in the industry. An Elite Class, to say Casting Couch never happened, makes sense. But they vouching that Casting Couch in totality doesn’t exist leaves me amused and baffled at the same time. It didn’t happen to you, love. Doesn’t mean it won’t to anyone. Ah, such is the case with any issue in the country I guess. Some problems sort of disappear when your bank balance starts piling up.
The Sri Reddy Issue – The Name Calling Scenario
My angst over this class divide was slapped back to the issue again, as Sri Reddy today took to the Film Chambers, stripped naked, and sat down to agitate the growing atrocities of Casting couch phenomenon. Her strip protest, although intervened by the police in a short while, was towards the alleged sexual exploitation by the industry’s renowned directors and producers. She has also been denied the membership of the Movie Artistes Association (MAA) despite having acted in three films. Sri Reddy said despite having applied for the membership card she had not been given that. The actress alleged that she had sent nude photos and videos to several people in the film industry who had demanded that so that she could be given a film role.
“They see the videos and give no roles. They have even asked for live nude videos from me. That is the extent to which they go to take advantage of women who seek roles,” she said. Sri Reddy said no roles were given to Telugu girls in the film industry. She alleged that Telugu girls are sexually taken advantage of. “I myself have been sexually exploited,” she said.
Now, this incident left me wondering, about the Sri Reddy issue. You see, until that point, the issue I presumed was towards a larger effect. It was towards the issue, which is often feebly whispered by the noteworthy in the industry at the various luncheons, charity events and after parties, and discussed as noisy gossips in Irani cafés and Dosa stalls. VoxSpace has been an active presenter of Casting Couch issue for the past year or so. At this point, no other media house understands the issue as deeply, personally and intricately as we do. And that makes us perhaps the very few to truly analyze the situation neutrally.
Sri Reddy is just the result of a collective frustration over this topic, if I may say so. The actress is not the lone agitator. She is perhaps the most emotionally driven. There have been many actresses who have spoken up, Sri Reddy just joins the list. But it is the manner in which the protest was structured that piqued my interest here. The issue now is not just the Casting Couch but the actress as well. It is a public outcry clothed in a private demeanour.
What’s In A Name? Apparently Everything
Sri Reddy’s ‘strip protest’ raises a question which needs to be answered. Are we truly at a stage where we see a woman sit to protest, and in the same stance brush aside the topic? Apparently, we are. No one wants to associate with her protest. I do understand the underlying scepticism that prevails in these matters. The questions swirling around the issue are like this – Is she telling the truth? Does she really have the evidence? Which names will she take next? We don’t realize, our curiosity just confirms that we are a bunch of hypocrites, revelling in the entertainment factor of this whole issue.
As I go about examining the names that have been spoken of, some of them have had an impeccable standing in the film industry, and one would truly be taken aback if she were to confirm the names with her evidence. Again, there are some names, which have a known track record of misfeasance and sexual abuse. So you see it’s a mixed bag. But all that apart here is a woman who is naked at a public place, protesting for an issue to be resolved, and that effects no one. What’s sadder is that she presumes that this ‘strip protest’ if I may refer to it in such a crude way, will make her point heard. In a country surviving with people whose attention span is that of a goldfish, to get a point to stick for five minutes requires a lifetime to construct. They will, however, give you attention, even fame for a few seconds, as long as they get entertained out of it, not because it’s the right thing to do.
What could have been better? Well, honestly, no one knows. If Sri Reddy is as driven to eradicate this issue, pluck it out from the roots, then she might just be starting at the right place. Now, again if this isn’t about the movement, then I’m afraid this is a career suicide step. In our research on the topic of Casting Couch, we met with a couple of actresses who gave us an observation as to why most of them do not speak up. The reason why women who are victims of sexual exploitation within the Industry do not speak up is that there’s nothing good to come out of it, career-wise. They’d rather use the information that they’ve collected to forcefully expand their careers. Divulging the evidence to the judiciary would leave no bush burned. Then why bother. And so, it is apparent that most of the actresses keep the information to themselves and use it to catalyze their career further ahead. That’s one way of doing it. Then, of course, some actresses are definitely scared to speak up. So I guess it depends on the personal choice and agenda in mind. We are no one to vouch for anything in particular.
The Conclusion Of Things – The Unheeded Voices
However, a smarter way of things, as professed so popularly by Sun Tzu in his book ‘The Art Of War’, is to wait for the opportunity. Never waste an arrow when you know you can’t breach the wall. Wait for it, and the opportunity shall present itself. Practicality defines such patience, but I understand that emotions do not. Sri Reddy today might’ve done something stunning and hopefully dismantling, but in showing her cards a bit too early in the game, she has run out of options to truly progress this movement to its fruitful eventuality.
Today, the true purpose of the protest remains anyone’s guess. And more so the extent to which this act, can actually inspire a change. Make no mistake, this is an issue which needs judicial action as soon as possible. If there are rules in the capitalistic world, if there is accountability in the corporate world, there needs to be some legal recourse to the atrocities happening within the movie industry as well. It is an industry as much as any other after all. Sri Reddy needs to be heard because it’s the right thing to do. No organization is speckle-free. Every organisation needs to take stringent measures to resolve the matters of gender-based discrimination and harassment, in the promptest manner.
And for the record, no matter what happens with this case, we are at a shameful stage in our humanity, if we learn nothing out of Sri Reddy’s protest. A woman taking to roads to express her disappointment is not at all a proud moment for the society we live in. We should be ashamed, and exercising absolute denial of that, won’t change anything. In a better day maybe we shall hear each other with an empathetic mind. Today is definitely not that day…
