Soni Razdan – actress and film director, and mother to Alia Bhatt – has shared her own #MeToo story from the past.
Recalling a horrifying account she experienced on the sets of a movie, Razdan, 61, has stated how she was once ‘nearly’ raped by someone but the attempt of the perpetrator, thankfully, did not succeed.
The actress chose not to name the person who committed the alleged crime against her, and she pointed out that her reason to remain silent at that point was the man’s family and kids, who might have had to bear the consequences of his actions.
The actress was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times/The Quint:
“You know the only reason I never said anything at that time and it sounds really odd maybe but I realised if I would have opened my mouth that person would have gone through a lot of problems. He had a family, small children. And at that time I said, ok, nothing really happened, I managed to control it but obviously I never spoke to that person again. I did not talk about it because of any shame or anything like that. I felt that I would be hurting his family, whom I knew.”
Razdan has found the courage to speak about it now, after all these years, due to the ongoing #MeToo campaign – which has persuaded a vast number of sexual assault survivors in the movie biz, to come out with their own stories of surviving sexual ordeals at the hands of their alleged predators.
If not for anything else, the survivors have the right to speak out and tell their past stories – to finally get some closure from years of emotional and mental torment.