JOIN USSandalwood drug case: Actors say women are easy targets
As a massive drug scandal rages on, many within the Kannada film industry have begun to ask: why are the police going only after actors and not after politicians?
Male stars enjoy the right contacts and can wriggle out of any problem, says a young woman actor who has delivered some recent hits. “Women are easy targets,” she says. “With this kind of spotlight on them, the real culprits may escape.” Yet, even within the film industry, those most susceptible to scrutiny are women, especially the ones donning glamorous roles and coming from non-Karnataka backgrounds.
“The existing misogynistic mindset that women are the ones most responsible for eroding the moral fabric of society puts film women in a precarious situation,” says actor Chetan Ahimsa.
Sharmiela Mandre, an actor whose name has been repeatedly mentioned in the course of TV stories, has had enough of the speculation.
“I have been extremely disturbed by the recent wild and baseless allegations against me, linking me to the drug scandal,” she posted on social media earlier this week. She said ‘false imputations’ were being made against her with regard to a car accident on April 4, in which she was injured.
“As a last resort, to protect my dignity and reputation, I have approached the City Civil Court, Bengaluru, restraining the publication of such false and defamatory stories against me,” she wrote.
Actor Parul Yadav feels woman actors are being targeted as they are soft targets and their names are being dragged into the drug scandal to gain extra publicity and divert attention from real issues.
“Why are the names of only women coming out? It is hard to believe that no male actor or politician’s children are involved. I also don’t understand why personal information of actors is under scrutiny” Parul wonders.
She asks, “If the investigators are giving away such personal information, how can I trust this system?” Asked why actors take to the consumption of drugs, Parul says, “Some actors succumb to peer pressure, others do it to shed their inhibition and think they will be able to act better. But their numbers are negligible.”