Every Change Has Certain Collateral Damage: Javed Akhtar on MeToo

Javed Akhtar and Shabani Azmi speak on #MeToo and Deepa Mehta’s movie, Fire.

Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi speak at Zee Jaipur Literature Festival

Photo: Altered by The Quint

Javed Akhtar on # MeToo’s ‘Collateral Damage’

“It is high time somebody had broken (sic) the silence, and somebody did... Every movement and every change has certain collateral damage also, but if, because of the collateral damage, we feel that it should not happen, then that would not be the right thing to do.”

Javed Akhtar, Lyricist and Writer

On Harassment In The Workplace

“The fact remains that the average working woman, more often than not, suffers some kind of harassment to some degree or the other, and I am quite convinced that whatever has happened in recent times will definitely put fright in people’s heart and things will improve. Whatever happened, I am happy about it.

Javed Akhtar, Lyricist and Writer

Speaking about her film, Fire, which caused a lot of controversy when it released more than two decades ago, Shabani Azmi said that many people called to thank her for telling that story.

“Because Deepa Mehta handled it so sensitively, it brought into the fore an issue that we were not even willing to believe existed, and we sort of pushed it under the carpet. Because it was dealt with in a sensitive way, so many gay people have come up to me to say they are really thankful for the film.”

Shabana Azmi, Actor

“I think the time has come that we recognise that a democracy is as strong as the confidence it gives its minorities. And gay (communities) are a minority.”

Shabana Azmi, Actor

The actor added that the fact that people openly talked about the problems with Section 377 meant that our society was becoming more progressive.