Kalki Koechlin, in a recent interview with Zoom, shared her two harrowing experiences of facing harassment. The first experience was at Cannes, where she was working as a promo girl for a mobile brand. Second time, a producer in Mumbai directly approached her with an indecent proposal.
What's Happening
"I have been into incidents where I have been in uncomfortable situations. One such incident wasn't in this industry. It was at Cannes. I was not even an actor, I was a student in London at that time and I had gone to Cannes as a promo girl for Nokia phones. There was an Indian producer, I'm not going to say the name. He knew somebody who knew my mother and they put me in touch with him saying, 'Meet him, he is a big guy,'" Kalki told Zoom.
"So, I met him and went to see his screening at Cannes. He then asked me out for dinner in London, and when I asked him about any leads in work at that point, he made it very clear that I have to be with him in order for that to happen. I, obviously, said no, thank you, and that was the end of that," Kalki recalled.
"The other time it happened was when I went for an audition here in Mumbai for a film and the producer said, 'Oh you want to do this film, but I need to get to know you because it's a big launch.' He was basically saying the same thing, but I said, 'I'm sorry. I don't want to waste your time or mine,'" said Kalki.
Kalki admitted that she felt rage on the spur of the moment but as a woman she was also worried about her safety.
"I have a raging fury inside me. I want to punch that person in the face but like any other woman, I tell myself to keep it in and just get out of the situation, cause it is also out of safety and other reasons. It's kind of disgust, kind of experience," Kalki said.
In A Nutshell
Kalki Koechlin opened up about her experiences of facing harassment on two different occasions - at Cannes and in Mumbai - with vivid details.