Ashwini Nambiar, also known by her screen name Rudra, stepped away from the limelight for nearly a decade following her marriage. She made a return to the public eye in 2017 through television serials and has recently made played a role in a crime thriller series Suzhal: The Vortex.
Recently, the actress came forward to share a deeply unsettling experience she endured during her early career while working on a Malayalam film. In an interview with IndiaGlitz, Tamil, Ashwini recounted the distressing encounter with the popular director-- with whom she had already done one movie in Mayalalam--who allegedly called her to his room in Chennai under the pretext of discussing an important matter and harassed her.
"One day, according to The Indian Express, he summoned me to his office to discuss something related to the film. At that time, my mother always accompanied me everywhere, but unfortunately, she was unwell that day, so a female hairdresser went with me instead. The director lived in an independent house. While we waited in his office on the ground floor, one of his employees came and informed us that he was upstairs and asked me to meet him there.”
Despite Ashwini’s insistence for the hairdresser to accompany her, the latter hesitated, unsure whether to intrude on a professional meeting between an actor and director.
Ashwini, the IE report added, just a teenager at the time, recalled. “When I reached upstairs, no one was there, and I then heard a voice from the bedroom asking me to come in. Since I had already worked with him before, I had no reason to doubt his intentions and entered. That’s when he misbehaved with me. I went in as an innocent teenager and came out as someone completely different. It took me some time to process what had happened. I kept asking myself if it was my fault if I had somehow invited this,” she shared.
Ashwini also revealed the emotional toll the incident took on her. Following the incident she swallowed sleeping pills and had to be hospitalized.
Ashwini made her acting debut in the Tamil film Pudhu Nellu Pudhu Naathu and went on to star alongside some of the biggest names in the industry, including Mohanlal, Mammootty, Chiranjeevi, and Vijayakanth in the 1990s.