It is hard to imagine the fiery Bollywood actor Rekha, whose character in Khoon bhari maang feeds an abusive husband to the crocodile, as a victim of sexual molestation. And the assault came from none other than her own colleague and a much senior actor Biswajit Chatterjee. Barely of 15 year, Rekha had to undergo a humiliating experience while shooting for the film Anjana Safar.
The director of the film Raja Nawathe had plotted a kissing scene meticulously with actor Biswajeet as the partner in crime. Keeping Rekha entirely out of the details of the scene, the director asked Biswajeet to catch hold of Rekha and kiss her forcefully for full five minutes. Biswajeet did so without thinking of Rekha’s consent. She was still a minor.
All these details are revealed in Yasser Usman’s biography of the actress: ‘Rekha: The Untold story’. “For all of five minutes, Biswajit kept kissing Rekha. Unit members were whistling and cheering. Her eyes were tightly shut but they were full of tears.,” she said.
Biswajeet has admitted to the fact that the scene was filmed without Rekha’s consent. However, in his defence he said it was the director’s idea and he wasn’t kissing Rekha “for my enjoyment”. He admitted that Rekha felt “betrayed and was furious” after the incident. This controversial scene reportedly never made it to the film which was renamed as Do Shikari.
While we outrage about the rape in #LastTangoinParis here’s a story of on-screen sexual assault in our own backyard. (Yasser Usman’s #Rekha) pic.twitter.com/YYklg71Nze
— Nikita Deshpande (@deepblueruin) December 7, 2016
Usman says the incident had left Rekha deeply scarred. After all, how does a 15-year old protest against far senior men? However, the casual response given by Biswajeet is very disappointing and shameful. The fact is he was aware of the consequences while his colleague was caught completely unaware, her dignity breached in front of the entire crew. He without a second thought should have declined to go ahead with the scene.
