HYDERABAD: Three months after the dramatic expose of the prevalence of casting couch in the Telugu film Industry, anchor-turned-actress Sri Reddy, who opened the Pandora’s box, seems to have now shifted gear. The actress took to Facebook to name a few artists who she claimed were involved in the sex racket that was busted in Chicago in the United States a couple of weeks ago.
The actress made a list of names titled, ‘Stars who can perform so well...’ and shared it on her Facebook account.
Following Sri Reddy’s latest act, several women’s groups, who had earlier offered their support to the budding actress by setting up committees to fight sexual harassment at workplace, now call Sri Reddy’s deed as most unfortunate. The groups also maintained that naming and shaming people would not achieve anything.
The groups had earlier condemned the act of media houses and social media users who started naming actresses involved in the Chicago sex racket. Now with Sri Reddy joining the naming-and-shaming campaign, representatives of various groups see it as a hurdle.
Sri Reddy’s semi-nude protest outside the Movie Artistes’ Association was made with the objective of bringing to light the practice of casting couch, which simply translates to sexual harassment, in the film industry.
“We have been able to meet officials and highlight the issue. We are just days away from the Telangana Film Development Corporation (TFDC) setting up a high-level committee to tackle the issue of sexual harassment at workplace. We have always condemned naming and shaming of individuals as that will divert one’s attention from the main problem at hand,” said Sajaya Kakarla, one of the activists.
It is unfortunate that Sri Reddy took this step, said another activist while acknowledging that Reddy had been trolled widely and she even received death threats for exposing casting couch. Despite multiple attempts by Express to reach her, Sri Reddy was unavailable for comment.