Arjun Kapoor attended India's Raw Star's grand finale on Sunday night as a guest promoting his new film Tevar but little could he apprehend what would happen next. In a shocking turn of events, his Ishaqzaade co-star Gauhar Khan, who was hosting that event was teased and slapped by a man from the crowd.
Also read: Gauhar Khan allegedly teased and slapped at India’s Raw Star finale for 'wearing short clothes'
When Arjun was asked about the incident, he paused for a second and continued, "No matter what you say about the incident, it will fall less. It is the most disgusting thing I have ever been a witness to and I am appalled that some Indian men have a thought process that is so lowly. I think what that man deserves is what he will get hopefully. The law will put him in his place"
While the man claimed that he slapped Gauhar for the short clothes she wears, Arjun discards everything, calling the entire fiasco 'ridiculous'. "There can be no reason good enough to act like this. You can get upset or angry about things but there's way of expressing yourself and your opinions. India is after all, a free country, it is a democracy. Who are you? Who are you to decide what somebody should wear? Who are you to raise hands on somebody? How can you be judgmental about anybody? The guy thought he will slap her and show his mardangi! But what kind of a mard are you when you are making use of your manhood in such an inappropriate manner?"
Not just for the safety of women, Arjun batted against humiliation in any form , meted to any individual, regardless of his gender. "No man should ever think he has the right to raise his hands on anybody, let alone a woman", said a visibly angry Arjun.
"Such thinking and people having such a mindset is wrong in the first place. It's shocking that we live in such a generation where we have to experience such a thing. It's sad", Arjun continued.
Read more: Gauhar Khan reacts after being slapped by man while shooting for 'India's Raw Star'
But the actor feels Gauhar is not the first victim and now that this incident has brought out the ugly realities of the society, more and more such videos will come out in the open. "Now that it has happened, the media will project the news saying, 'So many others have also faced the same thing'. I myself saw there are other videos coming through. So this problem has been existing for a number of years. It is something that is not spoken of each time but we have to face it daily head on."
An infuriated Arjun wanted to hit the man back but he feels there's much more that needs to be done than just ending violence with violence! "The onus lies on all of us men to stand up. Seriously I am not a violent person. I have never raised my hands on anybody and I hope I never do. But when I see situations like that, I really wish 'ekbar haath saaf kar leta hoon'", he paused and continued again. "But then I thought if I do it, there would be no difference between that man and me. The problem is that. If I also get violent with a person who has been violent, it does not put me in the right footing as well. Plus, it happened in such a haste that I hardly could have done anything", Arjun retorted as he explained why he did not go out of his way and hit the man, although he wished to!
Instead, Arjun thought the best way to deal with the situation was to calm a shocked Gauhar down and make her feel at ease. "I was somewhere else and she was totally in a different direction. It happened so fast that I just heard her screaming and by then, the man had already been beaten and taken out. I just took Gauhar away into her make up room. That was the most important thing for me that time- to get her out of that crowd", he said.
An actor who himself confesses that things do not affect him much said that the entire incident has shaken him up. "Yesterday, for the first time something affected me so deeply that I could not say anything. I went home and my sister asked me if I was all right. I really was not okay. I was shaken up. I knew I had to be prepared for this answer but I cannot come up with a correct answer as to why such things happen in our society even when we claim to be so advanced and liberal. It's like spitting on ourselves as men and it's humiliating for the nation to have men like this in our country"
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