Who is Payal Ghosh, the actress who has accused Anurag Kashyap of abuse?

Bollywood actress Payal Ghosh has emerged from relative obscurity after accusing maverick director Anurag Kashyap of sexual misconduct.

On September 19, she claimed that the director forced himself upon her when she was seeking a film job in 2014. While Kashyap has denied the allegations and labelled it as ‘baseless’, Ghosh has hit back to claim that those doubting her intentions are wrong. So who is Payal Ghosh? Here are a few things to know about her …

Payal Ghosh, 30, was born in Kolkata and graduated with a degree in political science.

Before her Bollywood debut, she acted in a clutch of South Indian films including Telugu-language feature ‘Mr Rascal’.

But it was in September 2017 when she courted Bollywood movie fans with her romantic comedy ‘Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi’, also starring comedian Vir Das. In an earlier interview, she claimed that she was drawn to the script as she found the movie hilarious. The film also featured late actor Rishi Kapoor and Paresh Rawal.

She was also seen in Telugu film ‘Pranayam’ in 2009. She has survived her share of struggles and is the quintessential outsider without any Bollywood or film industry connections.

She has also acted in South Indian film ‘Oosaravelli’ starring NTR Junior, but wasn’t successful in becoming hugely popular.

Ghosh has found an ally in Kangana Ranaut, who has openly supported her and her courage for speaking about against Kashyap.

In an interview with IANS, Ghosh claims that it took her two years to muster the courage to speak up against the sexual misconduct as her friends and family advised her not to talk about the sordid incident. “Imagine, someone removing one’s clothes in front of you all of a sudden. I was very young at that moment. I didn’t know what to do. When I shared it with my friends, they asked me to file a police complaint, but I avoided,” Ghosh stated in the interview. Why didn’t she speak up when the #MeToo movement gathered momentum in India a while back? “My family, my brother, manager and other people from the industry — all of them asked me to stay quiet if I wanted a career in this industry. ‘Your career will get ruined’, ‘no one will work with you’ were some of the things they said to me,” the actress said.