Radhika Apte makes shocking claims against South filmmakers

Radhika Apte stormed into the evolving digital landscape with a spate of projects like ‘Lust Stories’, ‘Sacred Games’ and ‘Ghoul’. Thereafter, she has maintained the tempo with recent releases like ‘Sister Midnight’ and Tisca Chopra’s directorial debut, ‘Saali Mohabbat’ with Divyenndu Sharma. A recent interaction between the actress and Sharma while promoting their film has been doing the rounds on social media, where she opened up about the traumatic sexism faced in the South Indian film industry during the late 2000s.

In a conversation with Divyenndu Sharma for ‘Creator x Creator’ by ‘The Indian Express’, Radhika Apte opened up about the sexism she faced while working in South Indian films at the start of her career. She admitted that she took these roles primarily because she ‘really needed money’, but the emotional cost was high.

Apte recounted a specific incident in a small town where she was the only woman on a set filled with men. She said, “They wanted to add more padding on my bum and breasts. They were like, ‘Amma, more padding!’ I said, ‘How much more padding? How much rounder would you make somebody?’”

Apte recalled retaliating, “I literally had to get that assistant saying, ‘Is your mother, sister… How much padding? Like, how much more? How much will you put, how much rounder will you make somebody?’ So, I said, ‘Tell the director, no padding’.”

Apte also realised that she was barred from bringing her own team, leaving her without a manager or agent to navigate a hostile work environment. She said, “And then I looked around. I was the only woman. I had no manager. I had no agent. My team was all men because they had given me and they were like, ‘No, you are not allowed to get your own team’. And that was the first time I realised, ‘My goodness, there’s literally…’ and I’m not kidding.”

The actress revealed that the experience left her feeling vulnerable and isolated, stating, “I never, ever want to be put in that situation again because I’ll cry. It was actually traumatic.”