In an industry driven by the star-system, not many gather the courage to talk against the elder Gods who get to call the shots.
Salman Khan is one such powerful entity in Bollywood. The 51-year-old star, always in the eye of controversy, is notorious for bullying actors to an extent that their careers have ended (Vivek Oberoi) and those who may have mildly offended him, still hover around the actor and ask for an apology (Arijit Singh).
But not Sapna Bhavnani.
The hairstylist and owner of the Bandra-based salon Mad o Wot has spoken out uninhibitedly against Khan, whom she famously didn’t get along with during her stint as a contestant during the sixth season of the reality show Bigg Boss last year. She had reportedly called the actor a ‘serial woman-beater’ on the show, but the channel had decided against airing those bits.
Now, in an interview with a leading daily, to discuss her upcoming memoir, titled Chapter One, she explained why the book will have no mention of Khan.
“This man really misuses people and I don’t have to give him importance… especially in my book,” she said.
About the actor’s infamous ‘raped woman’ comment, she said, “It’s insulting to have an Indian man talk like that on an international platform. I am embarrassed to call myself an Indian when statements like these go out worldwide. I was very vocal about it on Twitter, and everywhere. I got a lot of flak for it, but flak or stalkers and trollers [sic] should not be the reason why you should stop voicing the truth.”
Bhavnani further said that many people have warned her against talking about Khan but she’s not one to censor her opinions. “I was warned that you shouldn’t talk about him like that because you could get killed, and I was like, ‘What!’ I had heard rumours, but I have been channeling this ‘no fear’ thing for the past four years and I am not going to let a monkey scare me. I have been through a gang rape, I know what it feels like, I am a surviving member… there is nothing worse you can do to me really.”
About her stint in Bigg Boss, Bhavnani said, “It was a fuck-all experience. You have a male chauvinistic fucking pig as a host of this fucking show, that insults people, so people watch the show, and people worship him on the show because people want a job in one of his stupid, fuck-all movies where he dances like a monkey — that’s Bigg Boss in a nutshell,” she said.
