‘I am saying Me Too’: Veteran actor B Jayashree talks about sexual harassment

The Sandalwood actor and writer had written about the incident in her 2017 memoir ‘Kanna Mucche Kaade Goode.’
‘I am saying Me Too’: Veteran actor B Jayashree talks about sexual harassment
‘I am saying Me Too’: Veteran actor B Jayashree talks about sexual harassment
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Veteran theater and Sandalwood actor, B Jayashree revealed that she has faced sexual harassment and spoke up in support of the Me Too movement that has swept across India on Friday.

Speaking to the media at an event organised in Tumakuru, B Jayashree, who is also a Kannada writer and former Rajya Sabha member, said that she has written about her experience in her memoir, ‘Kanna Mucche Kaade Goode.’ "Even I have faced sexual harassment and I know it. People ask what proof I have, police will ask me what proof I have. But I know what happened and I have written about it in my memoir. I am saying Me Too. Yes, it happened but why should I talk about it again and again? The reason why I wrote about it is to ensure that other women don't go through what I had to. I am extremely happy that they are speaking up," Jayashree said.

Several journalists repeatedly asked Jayashree to recount the incident, which she had mentioned in her memoir, published in March 2017. But an emotional Jayashree refused to relive the experience and lashed out at them.

"It happened to me and I know it. I have written it in my book and it took a lot of courage to do that. I understand if people can talk about these things on social media but I cannot and I don't want to go back to that incident. I do not have any obligation to recount the incident," Jayashree said.

B Jayashree's statement comes weeks after Sandalwood actor Sruthi Hariharan opened up about her experience of workplace sexual harassment. Sruthi had alleged that South Indian actor Arjun Sarja had sexually harassed her during the shoot for the Kannada film Vismaya (Nibunan in Tamil).

B Jayashree is the granddaughter of Gubbi Veranna, founder of Gubbi Shree Chennabasaveshwara Nataka Company, an immensely popular theater troupe in Karnataka in the 1950s. Jayashree was born when its popularity was at its peak. Gubbi Veeranna ran a huge set up with script writers, actors, actresses, musicians, off-stage workers, and their spouses and children, housed in a single place.

B Jayashree is also a member of the unofficial Internal Complaints Committee, FIRE, started by several actors in Sandalwood.


 

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