Actor Durga Krishna, who has been facing cyber-bullying over her performances in movies like 'Udal' and 'Kudukku 2025', on Saturday termed the online abuses equally damaging as physical harassment.
"My Me Too is against those cyber-bullies and their regressive thoughts," Durga told Onmanorama over the phone.
Durga declared that she is not ashamed of those videos doing the rounds on the net as they are not leaked private videos of her but bits and pieces of her work published in a specific way by some perpetrators.
“I have done several movies in between and have given my best as an actor in all of them, whether it be emotional or fight scenes. But, whenever I Google my name, all that is available are videos of intimate scenes from my movies. These scenes are very normal to me, just like the rest of the shots in these movies. All I can say is that those people who are celebrating these videos are sexually frustrated,” she responded. Durga urged people to change their mindsets.
She also pointed out how it is only the female actors and not their male co-actors who are subjected to such malice constantly. "Dhyan Sreenivasan or Krishna Shanker are not getting targeted the way I am because they are men," Durga said. She added that she didn't mean that these actors and their families should be subjected to cyber abuse.
"My only request to people is to treat every other female actor and me the same way their male counterparts are treated in the industry. Please don't overstep the boundaries and throw abuses at us. We are doing the same job as our fellow actors,” said Durga.
Though her husband and their family have supported her, Durga said she is heartbroken that they must endure such maltreatment. “These abuses don't matter to me much, but I will be forced to react when my family is dragged into all of this. My husband is my support. He reminds me always to be strong, and I am grateful to him."
But Durga worries about what will happen when her husband reaches a saturation point. "How much can he go through. I'm scared that one day, fed up with these abusers, my husband might get forced to ask me to draw boundaries as an artist. What if he asks me not to do a movie because there is an intimate scene. What if I were asked to choose between my family and job. What if it goes beyond all of this. It is scary. People celebrate divorces these days, and they will be elated if something like that happens in my life,” she said.
According to Durga, she and her husband have received many negative comments from the day they posted their wedding picture on social media. “I received more negative comments than words of congratulation. Will they do the same to a male actor if he posts his wedding picture? There is so much hate for women actors who dare to do demanding roles,” she said that her journey against her abusers had been solo, but she will continue to fight for her peers in the industry.
“Why should we be limited? Why should we give up on our dreams just because the director asks me to do an intimate scene, which the story demands? My dream is to act in a Mani Ratnam film. Will I say no to the movie if I have to do such a scene? No, never. I can't change any scene in a movie as per my whims and fancy. It is up to the director, and if he/she convinces me to do something like that, I will do it,” she said.
She said her parents have supported her and are incredibly proud of her as an actor. “My parents watched 'Udal' in theatres. They saw the effort I put into the film and did not judge me on one scene,” she added.
