People Judged Me For Bold Film Choices: Mallika Sherawat

Actor Mallika Sherawat has revealed that she was thrown out of movies as she refused to have physical relations with her co-actors off screen. Known for her unapologetically bold choices, she disclosed to PTI as to how the industry works and how she was treated.

The start of her career

Sherawat made her debut in Bollywood with Jena Sirf Merre Liye in 2002, where she was known by her original name, Reena Lamba.

She grabbed the limelight after her 2003 release, 'Khwahish', where she was seen kissing her co-star Himanshu Malik 17 times. She then starred in 'Murder', which released in 2004.

Things changed for Sherawat since then as her unrestrained screen presence made people think that she was a "easy catch". In a report by HT, she said that due to this image, people often passed judgements on her character.

In an interview with PTI, she said, “There were so many accusations and judgements on me. If you wear short skirts, kiss on screen then you’re a fallen woman with no morals. Men tend to take liberties with you. This happened with me too."

The struggles she faced

Her choices cost her a lot. People thought the characters she played on screen were similar to the person that she is in real life, forgetting that she is an artiste enacting roles.

Sherawat said, “I was thrown out of projects because heroes would say ‘why can’t you be intimate with me? You can do it on screen, what’s the problem in doing that with me in private?’ I’ve lost so many projects. It’s very reflective of the society, what women deal with in our country.”

"There were times when directors have called me and said ‘come to me at 3 am,’" she added.

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The 41-year-old also disclosed that she was scared to talk about all these matters. “There is that victim blaming mentality which exists in our society and I always felt scared to talk about these things,” she said.

Emotional trauma

Mallika used to get hurt seeing the sensationalism around her. She said she knew her film choices were unconventional and maybe she would've done better if she "wasn't swimming against the tide", reported HT.

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She said, “When people judged me, it made me very insecure, overtly critical of myself and question everything I did."

“My story, where I come from and what I battled, was overlooked, and it was all about how many kissing scenes I had. It made me insecure because I thought I had so much more to offer. But there was only one aspect of mine being highlighted and I really suffered because of that,” the actor added.

Incidents she never forgets

She remembers how a senior journalist had asked her extremely "sexual questions” during an interview and nobody came out to support her.

Mallika has also shared one very scary incident of her life on ZEE5’s “The Story”. The web series documents real life incidents which have taken place in the lives of actors.

The series shows the incident where a stalker from Haryana wanted to kill Sherawat as he thought she was bringing a bad name to Indian culture by wearing short clothes. He was later arrested by the police.

The actress is reportedly dating French businessman, Cyrille Auxenfans.

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Kriti Dwivedi is an intern with SheThePeople.Tv