Parul Yadav, who is playing the lead role in the Kannada remake of the Bollywood film ‘Queen’, says #MeToo movement is a positive change in every workplace including film industry.
“The voice of women has been suppressed for years, it is great to see how stories of injustice, humiliation and harassment not only come out in the media but also legal action has been taken. There are film directors who had to stop working unless the legal process gets over. Now no member of the fraternity can get away after committing a crime like sexual harassment,” said Yadav.
The actress has been working in the South Indian film industry for quite some time and has received many awards for her Kannada films.
In the Indian film industry, several actresses such as Malayalam actress Parvathy, Bollywood actresses Kangana Ranaut, Nandita Das and Renuka Shahane, among many others, supported the #MeToo movement. Actress Tanushree Dutta was one of the prominent voices to come forward with her story of sexual harassment against veteran actor Nana Patekar.
“This is one of such movements that has given women a voice to take stand against injustice... So that the workplace becomes more secure for all of us,” said Yadav.
Asked if the actress has spoken to Vikas Behl, the director of ‘Queen’ who is also accused of sexual harassment, the actress said: “When we decided to remake the film in a different language, I had spoken to him once and that’s it. He said that it would be better if I do not watch the film because that might prompt me to copy the original performance, which none of us want.”
The original film ‘Queen’, starring Kangana Ranaut in the lead role and which released in 2014, now has four other versions — Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
While Ydav will be playing the Kannada version, Kajal Aggarwal, Tamannaah and Manjima Mohan will be in the lead role in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam versions, respectively.
The film is set to release in 2019.
