Hyderabad: Outspoken Congress leader and former Union minister Renuka Chowdhury has kicked up a new controversy while reacting to the issue of casting couch in movies, saying, the “casting couch exists not just in the film industry, it is everywhere.”
Responding to the controversial comments by Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khan regarding the casting couch, Ms Chowdhury, while speaking at a political event in Patna on Tuesday said, “It is prevalent not just in the film industry, even Parliament is not immune to it. It happens everywhere. It is the bitter truth. Do not imagine that Parliament or other workplaces are immune to it. It is time India stood up like in Hollywood with a “#Metoo campaign”.
Describing the kind of questions posed to a rape victim when she goes to a police station to report the crime, Ms Chowdhury used a famous dialogue from the epic blockbuster, Sholay. She said when a rape victim approaches a police station to report the crime, she is first asked “kitne aadmi the” (how many men were involved)?
Meanwhile, MP Kottapalli Geetha supported Ms Chowdhury’s viewpoint, saying, “Women are women. Wherever they go, they are exploited, manipulated and abused. I can only say it exists in every profession and there is no exemption.”
Disagreeing was Butta Renuka who said, “I don’t think such kind of indecent situations ever come across in Parliament. I don’t believe in such statements.”
And for a complete denial, you have J.C. Diwakar Reddy who is a TD MP: “I don’t think so. It is absurd. It is not correct to say the casting couch exists in context of the Parliament. It may be prevalent in the cine field and some other sections of society, but not in Parliament.”
