The recent incidents involving actors Nidhhi Agerwal and Samantha Ruth Prabhu where they got mobbed by crowd during public events raised concerns about the safety of female actors in such situations. Actor Chitrangda Singh, who was busy promoting her four projects across India last year, including Khakee The Bengal Chapter, Housefull 5 and Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders resonate with the concerns.
She tells us, “Some of these events can really get out of hand because you have to be able control the crowd. I was looking at those visuals with Nidhi, and it was scary to see that. It’s probably the duty of the agencies that are managing them to make sure they are safe. But that was scary. I don’t know how can they put them in that space. How could they let them go, how could this happen to them?”
Recalling her own experiences, Chitrangda Singh shares, “Even on these Dahi Handi events, I remember 2-3 times it happened, they started banging our car and it just gets out of hand because they have this proximity to an actor and suddenly they have access. I was very scared.”
But Chitrangda asserts it’s not just women who go through this. “John Abraham and I went and promoted this film we did a long time back, I, Me Aur Main. We went to a Delhi college, and we had to go up on stage and then leave. The crowd started to build up and suddenly I see everybody’s trying to whisk off John and he kind of looked back at me to take me along. He was trying to be protective of me and take me to the car. As soon as we sat in the car, John took off his shirt and his whole back was full of scratch marks. And nothing happened to me because there were so many women in that college.”
She adds, “I was just shocked to see that because he was trying to protect me, so he was behind me and then his whole back got scratched. So it just happens to everyone I suppose, it’s not just women.”