Love, lust beyond the script

The workplace has its darker sides. Several cases of sexual harassment at the workplace have made headlines in recent times. The allegations levelled against filmmaker Vikas Bahl and TVF’s Arunabh Kumar brought to the fore sexual abuse cases in the glamour industry. But largely untouched by such impropriety has been the poor cousin of cinema — theatre. Well, until recently! As news surfaced that actor Shilpi Marwaha, of Raanjhanaa fame, had broken her 11-year association with Asmita Theatre Group because mentor Arvind Gaur allegedly made repeated ‘advances’ towards her, it sent shock waves in the theatre fraternity. While people are still not sure of what exactly transpired between the two very noted figures of Delhi’s theatre circle, the incident has taken everyone by surprise. Is the reaction because molestation has been unheard of in theatre or is it because a stage artiste has made public such an accusation for the first time? Theatre artistes speak their minds.

Shakti Singh, a key member of director Atul Satya Koushik’s troupe, says, “I have been a professional artiste for seven years now. People fall in love, date or even go on to marry, but a case of molestation is something I am hearing for the first time. This news is shocking.”

However, unlike Shakti, there are many others who believe that this is nothing new and it is because the two personalities involved are big names that there is such a hue and cry. Many such incidents, they say, have been brushed under the carpet for ‘the larger good’. Nayana Sagar, who has been an actor, director and playwright for a decade, says, “As a director, I might have encountered it less because I am the boss on the sets but as an actor I have met people who made sexual overtures but luckily, they were all intelligent enough to back off when I told them that their gestures were not welcome. Such cases have always been happening. We all turn a blind eye to it. Even a lady in a high position can misuse her power and the victim may not be in a situation to do anything about it because they have to be part of the production. If a senior member like me has faced it, it must be rampant in the lower rung. The victims are so young and inexperienced that it gives more confidence to the perpetrator. Aspiring actors want to be on the stage and not relegated to backstage, and that fear keeps them mum.”

Theatre director Manil Mayank Mishra says that such allegations against a director have been rare. “We keep hearing about such cases but it is usually among the actors and mostly internally sorted out. People make compromises for the production. See, what has happened now, the incident has demoralised the whole theatre fraternity. Not many people are taking up theatre as it is and now such news will scare them further,” he rues.

However, both Sagar and Mishra believe that such cases in theatre are nowhere comparable to the sensational cases from the film industry.

Theatre veteran Lushin Dubey, who has worked with Arvind and Shilpi in the past, says, “I haven’t really come across cases of sexual advances in theatre but having said that, we are hearing such cases now because women are becoming vociferous. Admittance of sexual harassment is a new phenomenon. This must have been happening for a long time in the theatre world, but today women are opening up about anything they find demeaning.” She adds, “But I think we need to go beyond sensationalism and bring out the whole truth and both the parties must be heard. We hardly get to know what’s the conclusion of such stories.”

Adding to Dubey’s opinion, Sagar feels that since one woman has spoken out, it will now give courage to others who might have been suffering in silence.