Daisy cheated of Rs 1.5 lakh

Daisy Bopanna’s outburst against the producers of her Tamil film, Chakravyuham, for not paying her the remuneration agreed upon, has turned the spotlight on the treatment of actresses in the film industry.

Daisy says that, in addition to being cheated of Rs 1.5 lakh, she also faced a series of false allegations by the filmmakers.

But this isn’t a one-off incident. Many actresses say harassment from within the industry is common and isn’t to do with money alone.


“Heroines have a bad time on the sets because the industry is very male-dominated. And while I haven’t faced payment problems, I’ve had to settle for bad costumes and doing without a personal make-up artist,” says Padma Priya of Tavamai Tavamirundhu fame.

She was also in the news recently when she was slapped by the director of her film Mirugam. “I felt very humiliated, so chose to walk out immediately and filed a complaint against him as well. Nobody would dare behave like this with a hero,” she says.

Puja Gandhi of Mungaru Male has also encountered similar problems. “I had signed a film recently and when the agreement was drawn up, I told them that I’d be unable to allot them dates until January 2008. But the filmmakers started harassing me and wanted me to start shooting from October 2007.

They even threatened to drag me to court,” says Puja. She then asked them to take back the advance, which they refused to do. “Then they changed the dates on my agreement, put in the dates they needed and then complained to the film chamber,” she says. The problem was later sorted out, “but I realised how unprofessional people can be in the industry,” says Puja.

According to Padma Priya, debutantes have a particularly hard time. “Newbies have absolutely no say in the industry unless they are star kids. And since it’s their first film, most of them are ready to compromise,” she says.

Some are more fortunate. “I’ve never faced any kind of ill-treatment from any of my producers. Even when I was a newcomer, I was given the best facilities and nobody tried to dupe me of my earnings,” says Tamanna Bhatia of the upcoming film Kalloori. “I wasn’t aware that an actress was entitled to such luxuries.

The industry is a great place to be; everything here depends on your professionalism,” she says.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com