Amyra: Scared to name harassers
‘Until I don’t feel safe and secure, I won’t point fingers’
After actress Tanushree Dutta opened the floodgates for the #MeToo movement in India, several people in the film industry have talked about their own experiences. Actress Amyra Dastur says she has been a victim of harassment at the hands of men and women herself. However, she says she isn’t brave enough to name and shame them.
“I haven’t faced a casting couch in the South or Bollywood. But yes, I have faced my share of harassment in both industries. I don’t have the guts to name them because they are powerful people — men and women who made sure I felt helpless,” she said.
She says one day she will “definitely call them out on it”.
“But until I don’t feel safe and secure, I won’t point fingers. They know exactly who they are and what they have done. What I will say for now is that they better stop their discriminating ways because there’s definitely a wave of change coming,” Dastur added.
“I have had an actor squeeze himself up against me during a shot in a song and whisper in my ear that he was so glad that I was in the film with him. When I threw him off me and refused to speak to him again, he made my experience miserable,” Dastur said.
“My director told me to suck it up and honestly couldn’t care less. I was constantly called early to set, made to wait for hours and hours for my shot. I was made to shoot 18 hours a day, I slept for four to hours if I was lucky,” she said.
“To top it all, I was made to apologise to the actor for my difficult behaviour by the producer,” she said.