The news that the infamous rape scene in the movie Last Tango in Paris was shot without the consent of the actress was shocking indeed. In a 2013 interview, which has resurfaced over the Internet, the director Bernardo Bertolucci admitted that he didn’t inform Maria Schneider of the scene because he wanted natural reactions from her.
Maria had told the Daily Mail earlier that she felt humiliated and raped by the actor and the director. Bertolucci was slammed by many including celebrities like Chris Evans. The actor tweeted: “Wow. I will never look at this film, Bertolucci or Brando the same way again. This is beyond disgusting. I feel rage.”
Closer home, in Anjana Safar, Rekha was forcibly kissed for five minutes when she was just 15 years old. In another instance, Shruti Haasan was upset over the photos that were used to publicise one of her films, without informing her. Actress Malavika also alleged that Rajendra Prasad had kissed her several times while shooting a scene for Apparao Driving School, which she wasn’t informed about.
Actress Priyamani says, “It’s important to inform the actress about it, if the director thinks a scene needs to be added. Only when she says yes, should they go ahead with the shoot. Luckily, I haven’t faced anything so far. But during the shoot of Paruthiveeran, I initially didn’t know that there would be a gang rape scene in the climax. The director suggested and said that he’ll shoot it ethically. He also said that there’ll be no one on the sets, and I agreed to do it. If asked, it’s okay.”
Explaining the legal angle, advocate Supriya Ghosh says, “If it’s a professional contract, every small thing must be explained to the actors. Even if it’s a body double impersonating the actor in a scene. The actor can keep a copy of the contract and file a complaint at the movies association and also take it to the court of law.”
Malayalam actress Nazriya Nazim complained against her then upcoming Dhanush starrer Naiyaandi’s director Sargunam and producer Kathiresan for using a substitute without her knowledge and walked out of the sets. The trailers had a scene where the hero would slide his hand on the heroine’s stomach. “I felt insulted and cheated when I saw it on YouTube and it was also against the contractual agreements”, she told DC then.
Though the director claimed that it was done with Nazriya’s permission, he had to arrange for a private screening of Naiyaandi (after she gave a police complaint requesting to watch the movie before release) with the actress, her dad and an advocate watching it. Later, the alleged scene was removed.
Actress Namitha gave a complaint with Nadigar Sangam that one of her old producers and director Thiru was harassing her during the shoot of Azhagana Ponnu. She also told DC then, “What was narrated to me by Thiru was totally different from what he was trying to shoot. It was but natural for me to put my foot down”.
More recent example being Tollywood actress Anandhi who has acted in films like Bus Stop, and reportedly portraying Pawan Kalyan’s sister in Tamil film Vedalam remake in Telugu, was very furious having acted in a film Trisha Illana Nayathara (TIN) with director Aadhik Ravi Chandran for having cheated her. The 2015 film TIN had GV Prakash, Manisha Yadav and Anandhi in the lead and the adult comedy was runaway hit in K’town.
Apparently, Anandhi claimed that she was not informed of the script, which was filmed. She told DC, “Aadhik narrated a different plot initially for Trisha Illana Nayanthara, and what he filmed was actually an adult comedy. In fact, I was made to believe that TIN would be a cute romantic story. But only when we were shooting the climax portions, I realised that the film had an adult content. What the director told me was that I had to essay a bold character in TIN, which will be different from my earlier films.”
— With inputs from Anupama Subramanian
