A PIL filed before the Bombay High Court by Krishna Singh, 38, an art-director, says the glamorous exterior of the industry hides a breeding ground for gender discrimination and sexual exploitation of women.
Big screens, fascinating lives, fame and money may be the better known side of Bollywood.
But a PIL filed before the Bombay High Court by Krishna Singh, 38, an art-director, says the glamorous exterior of the industry hides a breeding ground for gender discrimination and sexual exploitation of women.
Singh who came to Mumbai from Delhi in 2002, has been working as an art-director for television soaps and films. She has alleged that her employer Ajit Patnaik of Designworks, an art direction company in Jogeshwari, had not paid her salary for 15 months.
When she took up the matter with him, he ignored her requests and later intimidated her along with members of the Association of Cine and Television Art Directors.
She has also alleged that she had to sign on blank papers and Patnaik and five others passed lewd remarks and made sexual advances towards her. She said Patnaik had maligned her across the industry which has rendered her jobless till date.
She also sued Patnaik in the labour court for non-payment of dues but alleged in her petition that her advocate was in connivance with Patnaik, who deliberately delayed her application and got it dismissed. Hearing her PIL on Thursday, the court said that she could challenge the order of the labour court and need not file a PIL.
Singh, who appeared in person before the court, said she was using her case as an example but the problem was wide-spread in the "unorganised" employment sector in Bollywood. The court directed the state government to file a reply to the PIL in four weeks.
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