Veteran actress Rekha's revelation on director Balachander is now the talk of the town.
Rekha made the revelations in an interview while talking about the shooting of the 1996 movie Punnagai Mannan, directed by Balachander and starring Kamal Haasan.
There was a kissing scene involving Kamal and Rekha, just before a suicide attempt by the pair, in the movie.
Rekha said Balachander planned the lip lock without her consent. Balachander had not told her regarding the kissing scene before the shoot.
When Balachander told her about this at the location, she was hesitant. Balachander told Rekha that it was normal. “There is no vulgarity in it and we need to show the love and bonding the characters share,” Balachander had said.
Rekha said she was only 16 at the time of the shoot and had just completed her Class 10. Now, Twitter is abuzz with talk that this amounted to yet another form of sexual harassment.
Many slammed Kamal Haasan and the legendary director for taking her consent for granted.
Rekha had stated about the incident in an earlier interview too.
She said Kamal Haasan suddenly grabbed her and kissed her lips. After the shoot, Rekha protested and sought to remove the scene. But the filmmakers retained the scene in the film.
Punnagai Mannan turned out to be a blockbuster and was later dubbed into Telugu as Dance Master and into Hindi as Chacha Charlie in 1996.