NEW DELHI: Delhi girl Taapsee Pannu says like any young woman growing up in the city, she faced eve-teasing and harassment.
The 29-year-old actress, who moved to Mumbai to make her career in Bollywood, said despite the problems, she never had the courage to confront the person responsible.
“Eve teasing and blank calls used to happen very often. My ears became numb. In DTC buses, people would try and touch. I am a sardarni and during Gurpurab festivities somebody or the other would touch you inappropriately in the crowd.
“Once I caught the guy, who was trying to grope and I twisted his hands, but didn’t have guts to confront or fight back. I felt as if it was my fault,” Taapsee said.
The actress said like any other girl she was also told to wear proper clothes and not go out late at night.
“We are always told, the problem is in your clothes. Even in my house, when my dad would see me wearing something short or sleeveless, he would say why does she need to wear such clothes? Why does she needs to go out after eight in the night?
“I never understood what my fault was and I don’t understand even now,” she said.
Taapsee plays an assault victim in her latest release “Pink”. The film also stars two other actresses- Kriti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang besides Amitabh Bachchan, Piyush Mishra and Angad Bedi.
Taapsee said contrary to the perception that heroines cannot be friends, three of them had a great time while filming the project.
“We lived like an entity while we were shooting the film. We were told we three are one and that’s how we went ahead. Together we could leave a larger impact. We used to be together for more than 12 hours while shooting. And actresses can be friends.”
Produced by Shoojit Sircar, “Pink” marks the Hindi directorial debut of Bengali filmmaker Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. (AGENCIES)