This superstar forcibly kissed 15-year-old star kid on set, left her in tears, shocked, later laughed it off saying...

This is the time of intimacy coordinators and sensitivity coaches in Bollywood. Filmmakers are going the extra mile to make sure actors are comfortable on set, particularly in scenes that require intimacy. Consent and comfort are being taken into account more and more. There is still a long way to go, of course, but things are better than a few decades ago, when powerful people seldom paid heed to what young actresses felt or wanted. For instance, this controversial incident from a film set in 1969 had a superstar assault a 15-year-old actress.

When a superstar forcibly kissed his 15-year-old heroine

In 1969, Rekha – daughter of actors Pushpavalli and Gemini Ganesan – began her career as a lead actress. She signed the film Anjana Safar, which was later renamed Do Shikaari. The 15-year-old was paired opposite Bengali superstar Biswajit Chatterjee, who was 32 at the time. In her recently published biography Rekha: The Untold Story, the actress recalled how Biswajit and the film’s director Kuljit Pal once conspired to elicit a kissing scene from her without her consent. A scene required Biswajit to romance Rekha but the actor went on to kiss the teenager as the shot rolled, catching her by surprise. The director did not cut the shot. After the shot, the actress was left in shock and began to cry on set.

When Biswajit laughed off the incident

While there was much controversy around the kiss once it was reported in the press, it was still kept in the film. In an interview, Biswajit defended his act, saying that he only did what the director asked him to. The actor added that in the end, the scene was loved by the audiences, which meant it was the right call.

Do Shikaari’s fate at the box office

Anjana Safar, as it was then called, ran into delays due to production issues, and then had a run-in with the Censor Board. The shoot was completed in the early 70s but the film remained canned for years. It was only in 1979 that it was released under the title Do Shikaari but failed to do well at the box office.

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