Actors Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh spoke at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit yesterday. The duo unequivocally condemned harassment of any kind.
“I think harassment per se, of any kind, is wrong. Women, men, any person being harassed is wrong, whether in a workplace or in public or home, any harassment is wrong,” said Singh.
After actress Tanushree Dutta accused actor Nana Patekar of sexual harrasment during the shooting of the film Horn Ok Pleasss (2009), the issue has seen many film personalities condemn such incidents.
Without going into the details of the Dutta case, Singh added, “Right now something has happened. There is all kind of speculation, but if it has happened, then it takes a lot of courage for somebody to speak about it. You’ve been through some very disturbing experience. It takes courage to speak publicly about it, therefore you consider what this person is saying. But it's inconclusive yet, so here were speculate as to what actually happened but if it has happened then it is absolutely wrong and I condemn it empathetically.”
Dutta chose to speak about the alleged harassment 10 years later, after she spoke about the #MeToo movement in an interview in America.
Padukone said that the #MeToo movement should not be restricted to gender.
“I see it as beyond gender and harassment of any kind, where you maliciously act out against anyone. [To me] it is about right over wrong. Anyone who faces discrimination or abuse, I think we as people must support that person. It is not about a man or woman, female versus male, let's not complicate or get confused in that conversation. I think #MeToo should not be about be [about] gender. It should bright versus wrong,” said Padukone.
Meanwhile, over the last few months, there has been speculation about Padukone and Singh's marriage. Earlier, it was buzzed that the couple would tie the knot in November in Italy, but that now it would take place in early 2019.
When asked about the same, Singh replied, “When? Where? Aren't we reading about this in the media? Some have reported the colour of my sherwani, the wedding itinerary, guest list, what gifts we will get. All this has been decided, you know all about it. Our very enthusiastic friends from the media are not holding back. It's all out there but when there is something you will be the first person to know.”
When Padukone was asked whether the wedding had been pushed to 2019, the Padmaavat (2018) actress replied, “Well, [as per media reports] we have also been married, engaged several times.”
Singh then interrupted her saying, "What all has not happened, we have been engaged many times. I find these details very fascinating."