Following the massive backlash the veteran choreographer Saroj Khan received on her comments defending casting couch in the Hindi film industry and in fact, blaming the girls who fall prey to it in the process, actress Richa Chadha has come out in defence of the ace choreographer. While Richa has always been vocal about the prevalence of casting couch and other forms of sexual harassment that women have to go through, this time Richa says that people are making a mountain out of a molehill for Saroj Khan's statement.
While talking to ANI about casting couch and Saroj Khan's recent comment on the same, Richa Chadha said, "I think people are making mountain of molehill. There's narrative that people in Bollywood are the worst and indulge in malpractices which isn't the case. She (Saroj Khan) meant to say (that) it takes place in all industries, why is Bollywood being singled out?"
Veteran Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khan left the nation in shock with her comments on the prevalence of casting couch in Bollywood earlier this morning. In a panel discussion on the same topic on a leading English news channel, Saroj Khan happened to say, "This has been going on since the beginning of time. It hasn’t started now. Someone or the other always tries to take advantage of every other girl. The people in the government do it too. Then why are you after the film industry? It provides livelihood at least. It does not rape and leave you. It depends upon the girl and what she wants to do. If you don’t want to fall in wrong hands, you won’t. If you have art (talent), then why would you sell yourself? Don’t take film industry’s name, it is everything for us.”
Soon after her comments, Saroj Khan started getting a lot of flak. The choreographer later apologised for her statement while interacting with another news channel.
