‘I’m no village girl but this is embarrassing’

The most important thing for a woman is her dignity, and Shashilal Nair has tried to strip me of mine. I am not a prude. I am a woman of the...

The most important thing for a woman is her dignity, and Shashilal Nair has tried to strip me of mine. I am not a prude. I am a woman of the 21st century and I know that nudity can be aesthetic and beautiful. But in the case of this film, Ek Chhoti Si Love Story, it was not required.

What hurts me more than anything else is the breach of trust. I was assured by Shashilal Nair that he would delete those scenes he’d filmed on a body double if I found them tasteless or objectionable. I have his promise in writing. Still, he is refusing to do so even now. That is what is most upsetting. That I was being cheated all along. By someone who was a friend.

I think it is humiliating for me as an actress and as a woman to be portrayed in a manner that is intended to be titillating. I don’t think the film requires that. If the director had managed to convince me that the film required sensuousness or nudity, I might have given it some thought and consideration. What I’m trying to explain here is that I’m not some narrow-minded village girl. I’m a sensible product of the nineties and I have a fully functional brain. But I insist that this film does not require nudity or vulgarity. It is being included for sensationalism and I don’t want to be a part of that.

What is this if it is not objectification of the female body? It is a serious issue and should be dealt with seriously. The film has attracted publicity for all the wrong reasons. It is embarrassing for me as a woman to know that the whole country is now tracking a case that is so trivial in the larger scheme of things, but so private and personal a matter for me.