Mumbai, Actress Parul Yadav, who is playing the lead role in the Kannada remake of the Bollywood film “Queen”, says from removing the accused from his position to creating collective consciousness among people regarding sexual harassment at the workplace, #MeToo movement is a positive change in every workplace including film industry.
“The voice of women has been suppressed for years, it is great to see how stories of injustice, humiliation and harassment not only come out in the media but also legal action has been taken. There are film directors who had to stop working unless the legal process gets over. Now no member of the fraternity can get away after committing a crime like sexual harassment,” Parul said in an interaction with IANS.
Parul has been working in the south Indian film industry for quite some time and has received many awards for her Kannada films.
In the Indian film industry, several actresses like Malayalam actress Parvathy, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, Nandita Das and Renuka Shahane, among many others, supported the #MeToo movement whereas actress Tanushree Dutta was one of the prominent voices to come forward with her story of sexual harassment against veteran actor Nana Patekar.
Parul said: “This is one of such movements that has given women a voice to take stand against injustice…so that the workplace becomes more secure for all of us.”
Asked about if the actress has ever spoken to Vikas Behl, the director of “Queen” who is also accused of sexual harassment, the actress said: “When we decided to remake the film in a different language, I had spoken to him once and that’s it. He said that it would be better if I do not watch the film because that might influence me prompt me to copy the original performance, which none of us wants.”
The original film “Queen” that released in 2014, has now four versions – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. While Parul will be playing the Kannada version, Kajal Aggarwal, Tamannaah and Manjima Mohan will be in the lead role in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam versions, respectively.
The film is slated to release in 2019.
