Dia Mirza was one of the few Bollywood heroines who came out and spoke in support of the Me Too India movement. The Sanju actress in fact openly discussed about Sajid Khan on national television and insisted that the industry knew about him and many others. The Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein actress unlike some other international pageant winners failed to bag more work in the industry despite delivering hits very early on in her career. Dia during the same chat revealed the real reason why she wasn’t considered for many projects despite being fit.

When she was asked if she ever faced sexual harassment at work place, Dia said, “I have fortunately not been a victim of sexual harassment but I think there are many instances… Many many instances when I have lost out on work or I have been disassociated from a project or people have been disinterested in working with me because I was unwilling to succumb to this very unspoken understanding that men in our industry have over our bodies and minds and our actions.”

The Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein heroine was one of the few people to openly bash people like Alok Nath, who has been accused of rape and suppression of a female director Vinta Nanda. She said, “If Alok Nath was considered the sanskari individual, the one that was espousing the value systems that we believe an elderly person in a family should have but at personal front it was common knowledge that he was far from that person, I don't understand how people could cast him in those roles. I am not saying that people who play murderers in the film should be murderers. I think that would be naïve.”

Dia also called for the industry to stand up and not just take cognizance of this issue/movement, but also call for reforms, she added, “I think also there is deep responsibility that we have as an industry to not work with individuals who are doing lot of wrong or lot of harm. Because by doing that we are perpetrating the crime we are taking this notion that you can be one person in front of the camera and another behind the camera and it's perfectly alright. Then why are we as actors held accountable for our so many of our other choices or actions? I think it should hold good for everything.” Read this: Accused of sexual misconduct, Bhushan Kumar fires Mogul director Subhash Kapoor and tries to rope in Rajkumar Hirani to lure Aamir Khan back

After the social media furor, Nana Patekar, Sajid Khan and Subhash Kapoor have been fired from their projects. Actors like Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan were shocked and have openly voiced their support for the victims and vowed to not work with any of the accused. However, we will have to wait and watch if like Dia Mirza, women who are speaking up will lose out on good and deserving opportunities because they’ve been outspoken.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 23, 2018 02:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).