Actor Aditi Rao Hydari has shared her #MeToo story and how she lost all hope of finding work when it happened, according to the reports. Aditi was speaking at the India Today Conclave South 2018 in Visakhapatnam on Friday.
Aditi said that though her experience with sexual harassment in the film industry wasn’t as severe as the accounts of other women, it still made her lose work for eight months.
“I remember when I started, I was extra-naive because I came from a protected background. I didn’t know that the rumours were true, that things like this did happen. And honestly, I have not had such a bad time. I had one incident which actually didn’t harm me very much. But yes, I did lose work because I was given a choice – it’s either this or this. For me, it was a no-brainer. I had to walk away,” she said. Aditi said the incident made her hopeless about finding work again.
With positive support from her team, she found work again after eight months. Now, Aditi says that victims of harassment should be allowed to set their own pace. “I think you should speak about something only when you are ready. And when you don’t talk about it, people are like, ‘Oh, they were paid off’ or ‘oh, they were silenced,” she said.
“I think that everybody should do what they need to do, when they think it is right. That is what empowering a person is. This #MeToo movement is turning that on its head and taking that power away by putting these conditions and saying, ‘You must speak. If you don’t, that means you are giving in,’” she added.
