Human rights group supports Telugu actress who stripped, spoke of casting couch

Hyderabad: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday came out in support of Sri Reddy, the Telugu actress who stripped outside a film chamber office to make her complaint heard last week.

The human rights body asked the Telangana government to probe allegations of sexual exploitation and casting couch in the Telugu film industry.

According to a report in NDTV, the commission also appeared to have taken a dim view of how the government charged her with obscenity but hadn't acted on her complaints.

Sri Reddy had stripped off her clothes in front of the Movie Artistes Association (MAA) office last Saturday to protest women from other parts of the country being given preference. She had later alleged that outsiders were more willing to trade sex for movie roles.

Following the act, the MAA instructed all its 900 members not to work with her, along with withholding her membership.

"But it is nowhere mentioned, if action on the serious allegations of casting couch and sexual harassment, levelled by her, has been taken by the authorities," the NHRC said in a statement.

The human rights body further said MAA act made it look like the action taken against her was "an attempt to muzzle the voice of whistle blower".

It also observed that the reported ban on the actress from working in the film industry was "violation of her right to livelihood and live a life with dignity".