On June 24, 24-year-old Infosys employee S. Swathi was murdered in broad daylight in Chennai by a man who was allegedly obsessed with her and had been stalking her.
During a Twitter conversation, Tamil film superstar Siddharth talked about how the flippant portrayal of stalking in Indian cinema might be an important factor in such cases.
@dhanyarajendran the truth is a lot of stalking in real life is inspired by what we show in our films. Too many examples of justification.
The conversation took place with The News Minute editor-in-chief Dhanya Rajendran, in response to a post on the site titled "If she says ‘no’, then leave her alone".
@dhanyarajendran when a woman says no,it means no. Not yes.Not maybe. No. No matter what a man says or does. Period. Sadly we see otherwise.
@dhanyarajendran we are all responsible for this. Nobody can shift blame including me. We have to ensure stalking is not encouraged anymore.
The actor acknowledged that everyone, including himself, needs to take responsibility for a trend that glorifies stalking as a valid means to woo someone.
We've been selling a terrible dream in our films for long. That any man can get the woman he wants just by wanting her enough. Must change!
When a woman stalks a man in our films she's a vamp. When a man does it he is a hero. It's a complicated discussion. But it needs to be had.
