Fatima Sana Sheikh, Casting on the couch and I too in Bollywood: ‘It’s not that the industry is bad, but when you get intimate, the lines are blurred’
Fatima Sana Sheikh, who is known for her roles in Dangal, Ludo, Thugs of Hindostan and Sam Bahadur, has once again talked about the prevalence of sexual misconduct and casting couch in the entertainment industry. The actress has recently shared her views of how things have developed in my later era, and how much to go.“Now more accountability”Asked about being one of the few in Bollywood to openly address the issue, Fatima admitted that the landscape had changed. “I think things have changed. People are very accountable. They are a little more frightened,” he said in an interview with Bombay humans. He said that in most film sets today, personnel or units have been nominated to address complaints of sexual misconduct before proceeding in police cases.He also stated that the conversation around these issues has now been taken more seriously. Fatima said, “There is a conversation. There is an inquiry … it is present in every industry.”“Lines are sometimes blurred”Fatima offered a nuance of how misconduct may sometimes be present in gray areas, especially when power dynamics or blurred individual boundaries fall into sports. “You are working with someone, you are intimate. But then you do not understand, the lines are blurred. Then the strength is dynamic,” he explained.Before passing the decision, advocating a thorough investigation, he also said that the benefit of doubt is often, and fine, is given to women. “Because it is a male-creating industry. And now, even after me, women can talk about it … you will be held accountable.”“I have not faced it in Bollywood”Explaining her own experience, Fatima said that when she has spoken about uncomfortable circumstances in the past, especially in her short years, she has never faced sexual misconduct within the Bollywood ecosystem. “It’s not that the industry is bad. Whatever incident has happened is just a small, short time and some conversation,” he said.She was in a hurry to emphasize that such issues are not exclusive to the film set. In fact, he said that the problem is equally, if not more, serious in the corporate world. “There is a corporate life when you are together. Therefore, it is even more fierce … and even more toxic,” he said.
“Amazon and Netflix are very special about posh training”Fatima praised the preventive measures adopted by major platforms such as Amazon and Netflix, which revealed that every project supported by them included mandatory posh for cast and crew (prevention of sexual harassment) awareness sessions. He said, “Somebody will come from this agency … You will have a meeting with artists, crew and all the holes. You will be told what your rights are, what is appropriate, what is not,” he explained.He said that most iconic production houses now operate these sessions as standard exercises, a step that he believes that is a positive step towards a safe work environment.“People are being held accountable to their actions – not only in our industry, but also corporate and beyond. And that looks like progress,” she concluded.
