The very beautiful Nargis Fakhri is back after leaving Bollywood in a huff. She will now be seen with actor-producer Sachiin Joshi in the supernatural thriller Amavas which open on January 11. But hang on. This doesn’t mean Nargis has forgotten the grim experiences she had in the Hindi film industry.
Says a source in the know, “Even now Nargis is not ready to come back to Mumbai. She agreed to do Amavas only because it was shot entirely outside India in London.” Nargis Fakhri’s chilling experience of being harassed by unwanted male attention drove her out of the Indian film industry. A friend of the actress says, “There came a day when she just couldn’t take the persistent calls and passes anymore and decided to quit Bollywood and India.”
When Nargis declined to entertain the pesky attention, she was dropped from projects. One fine day she was dropped from the one project that she had with a superstar. When she confronted the director, he shrugged helplessly and advised her to ask her superstar-co-star. Nargis preferred to move on.
Says the source, “No way was she going to give in. On the other hand, just staying on in India on her own terms was becoming more and more tough. Producers would tell her to loosen up, socialize. They would ask her why being a New Yorker, was she so uptight. They think girls in the West are more generous with sexual favours. But there was no chance in hell that she was going to give in.”
Nargis simply left the country. The lesson she leaves behind is one of gross power abuse and standing up to it. There are a number of top stars in Bollywood who are prime sexual offenders. Some of them are being seen as the sensitive masculine face of the Me Too movement. The day those powerful faces are unmasked the Movement would finally mean something in India.
