TV star Ridhima Pandit has come out in support of fellow colleague, Krishna Mukherjee, who accused TV producer Kundan Singh of harassment on the sets of her Dangal TV show ‘Shubh Shagun’. Ridhima said that it was very brave of Krishna to speak up against the injustice that she’d been facing.
In an elaborate post on Instagram, Krishna had alleged that she was locked inside her makeup room when she refused to shoot. She also claimed that her payment for the last five months had not been cleared by the producer.
“What happened with her (Krishna Mukherjee) is horrific,” Ridhima told News18 Showsha. “This should not happen to anyone. Kudos to her for talking about it because producers like those going to find gullible actors and ruin their lives, putting them in depression. We all stand by Krishna because it could have been any of us,” the actress told us.
The former ‘Bahu Hamari Rajnikanth’ actress further lashed out at the producer and called his behaviour with Krishna “absolutely unacceptable”. “You do not own us. Yes, you own our time. If we misbehave during that time, you have the legal right to drag us to court. But you have no business trying to harm us physically or mentally. Absolutely not. We are the face of your show. We are also giving our blood and sweat for it,” she said.
Ridhima claimed that it is sad that nobody talks about the abuse on television sets. She did not name anyone but recalled an incident when an executive producer of her show did not let her visit her ailing mother in hospital.
“It is true that nobody talks about it. There is a certain form of abuse that does follow. In one of my shows, the producers were nice but the EP (Executive Producer) would mentally harass me. It was during that time I started to discover that my mother was unwell. She was admitted into the ICU. That was very heartbreaking for me to see my mother suffer so much. On the days she was admitted to ICU, the visiting hours were 7 am – 8 am and 4 pm – 5:50 pm,” she said.
“I told him to keep me in the 9 am shift so that I could visit my mother and then come for the shoot or if he wants me to shoot at 7 am, then he must allow me to leave at 4 pm. I told him I could give extra hours but I wasn’t allowed. That was absolutely cruel,” the actress added.
Ridhima further said that when she decided to speak up against the executive producer, lies were spread against her that she was throwing tantrums on sets. She concluded by saying that actors usually do not speak up because there is a “fear of losing work”.
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