Madhavi Latha has opened up about the many ways in which she was sexually harassed by a producer. The actress, last seen in Vishal’s Aambala, said that she’d been receiving indecent proposals from directors and producers ever since she became an actress.
She told Silverscreen, “I was new to the industry then, and the director of my film asked me whether we could be friends. I didn’t understand the meaning of his words. I thought he was referring to the usual friendships men and women have. I thought he meant a platonic relationship, and said, ‘sir we are already friends’. Then he told me that he wanted a ‘different’ kind of friendship. That’s when I understood what he wanted.”
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Madhavi Latha says that she had meant to send a message about the encounter to one of her close friends. Somehow, the message ended up being sent to the director who’d made those unwelcome advances. “The director and his associates made life terrible for me on the sets after that. They stopped my caravan, refused to allow my mother to accompany me to the sets. I had my make-up done under a tree throughout the schedule. They even changed my accommodation. From a three-star room, I went to a lodge.”
The actress, though, was willing to let bygones be bygones. “I called the director up and wished him on Teacher’s Day. He was surprised to hear from me. I told him that he was my guru and that I would always respect him.”
An Assistant Director later told Madhavi that her situation would become better if she apologised to the director; she refused. “My conscience is clear. I am not the person in the wrong,” she said.