After Farhan Akhtar, Yami Gautam defends Hrithik Roshan: ‘As a woman, this terrifies me’

Yami Gautam took to Facebook to defend Hrithik Roshan in his spat with Kangana Ranaut. However, she didn’t mention the two stars by name.

The Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut spat appears to be far from over. After Kangana Ranaut spoke with media about Hrithik almost a month back, Hrithik has taken the same route to present his side of the story. He has given interviews to a number of media outlets reiterating that he never met Kangana in private and what they have is “not a lover’s spat”. He had also said that the onus of explanation should not be on him but the accused. While Kangana is yet to respond, her sister Rangoli Ranaut has questioned Hrithik on Twitter.

After Hrithik Roshan spoke out against Kangana Ranaut, his Kaabil co-star Yami Gautam has posted in his defence. (PTI)

Meanwhile, many Bollywood personalities came out in the support of Hrithik, the most significant being Farhan Akhtar. In an open letter, Hrithik’s former co-star wrote, “They’ve accepted her story at face value. Isn’t this discriminating against the other party? For a moment, let’s put aside emotion, prejudice, biases, our understandably protective instincts and look at the facts as they exist today.”

And now, it is Hrithik’s Kaabil co-star Yami Gautam to talk about this. In fact, Hrithik had mentioned Yami while emphasizing the point that he doesn’t meet his co-star one on one. During an interview to CNN News 18, he said, “I have never met her one on one, not once. I haven’t met Yami (Gautam), Ronit or Rohit one on one. So it is not so unbelievable.”

Here is the full post of Yami Gautam:

I am usually not very vocal on social media, but I am making an exception today, since as a woman, what I am seeing right now terrifies me.

This is concerning the matter surrounding two of the biggest stars in our industry. I have, fortunately, had the opportunity to work with one of them. However, I am not writing this as a co-star or even as a friend. I am writing this as a woman and a concerned citizen of the country, and I will try to get my point across as succinctly and as objectively as possible.

I am no legal expert. And I am not privy to the details of the case. I know what has been reported in the media, and I am all for good, honest reporting. However, somehow, the tussle has turned into a gender war, with a certain faction of the society having already declared the man guilty. People have presumed that since he is a man, he must be the guilty party, since that is how it has always been. Men have oppressed women in one way or another for centuries, and it’s being presumed that it is the same in this case, too.

And that’s dangerous. Whatever happened to innocent, until proven guilty? Whatever happened to letting the law take its own course? Yes, a lot of times, at least in this country, we have take to the streets to get justice. But that’s not the case here. The police is investigating, and both the parties are privileged enough that they can represent themselves in court and fight this out legally. Sadly, our law and order is sort of classist, but let’s not digress.

Here is why this vilification of a man based on make-believe evidence is dangerous. If the gender-card is allowed to take precedence over facts and objectivity, it will be a serious blow to the on-going efforts of getting women an equal standing with the opposite sex. If this baseless trial-by-media is allowed to continue, where one party has been presumed to be guilty, there is a good likelihood that people might lose faith in this equal-rights-for-all movement that has picked up momentum in India only in recent years.

I am not exonerating anyone here. I am also not suggesting malice by any one party. All I am saying is, let’s not make it a fight between genders. Let’s keep it a fight between two people who may or may not have corresponded in the past. Let the facts be unearthed and until then, let’s reserve our judgements.

Just because this is a fight between a man and a woman does not mean it has to be a fight between genders. Making everything a gender issue can easily distract us from addressing legit sexist issues that plague our society.