Not without my consent

The news that the infamous rape scene in the movie Last Tango in Paris was shot without the consent of the actress was shocking indeed. In a 2013 interview, which has resurfaced over the Internet, the director, Bernardo Bertolucci admitted that he didn’t inform Maria Schneider of the scene because he wanted natural reactions from her. Maria had told the Daily Mail earlier that she felt humiliated and raped by the actor and the director. Bertolucci was slammed by many including celebrities like Chris Evans, Jessica Chastain,  Anna Kendrick and more.

Chris Evans tweeted: “Wow. I will never look at this film, Bertolucci or Brando the same way again. This is beyond disgusting. I feel rage.” He apparently even suggested that the two men should be in jail for their actions. Marlon passed away in 2004 and Maria died in 2011, but Bernardo is still alive. While Chastain tweeted: “To all the people who love this film — you’re watching a 19yr old get raped by a 48 yr old man. The director planned her attack. I feel sick.”

Reportedly, for Anjana Safar, Rekha was forcibly kissed for five minutes

Closer home, much before Bertolucci shot his film, one of Bollywood’s top heroines, Rekha, was forcibly kissed on  a film without any prior discussion or consent for a film. An excerpt from the recently released book Rekha: The Untold Story by Yasser Usman was tweeted out which describes the shocking incident. In Anjana Safar, the actress was forcibly kissed for five minutes when she was just 15 years old.

In another instance, Shruti Haasan was upset over the photos that were used to publicise one of her films, without informing her.

Explaining from the legal angle, advocate Supriya Ghosh says, “If it’s a professional contract, every small thing must be explained to the actors. Even if it’s a body double impersonating the actor in a scene. The actor can keep a copy of the contract and file a complaint at the movies association and also take it to the court of law.”

Actress Priyamani who works in multilingual movies says, “It’s important to inform the actress about it, if the director thinks a scene needs to be added. Only when she says yes, should they go ahead with the shoot. Luckily, I haven’t faced anything so far. But during the shoot of Paruthiveeran, I initially didn’t know that there would be a gang rape scene in the climax. The director suggested and said that he’ll shoot it ethically. He also said that there’ll be no one on the sets, and I agreed to do it. If asked, it’s okay.”

Malayalam actress Nazriya Nazim complained against her then upcoming Dhanush starrer Naiyaandi’s director Sargunam and producer Kathiresan for using a substitute without her knowledge and walked out of the sets. The trailers had a scene where the hero would slide his hand on the heroine’s stomach. “I felt insulted and cheated when I saw it on YouTube and it was also against the contractual agreements”, she told The Asian Age then. Though the director claimed that it was done with Nazriya’s permission, he had to arrange for a private screening of Naiyaandi (after she gave a police complaint requesting to watch the movie before release) with the actress, her dad and an advocate watching it. Later, the alleged scene was removed.

With inputs from Anupama Subramanian