When Kamal Haasan Was Accused By Rekha Harris Of Allegedly Kissing Her Without Any Consent & That Incident Haunted Her For Years, Netizens React “This Is S*xual Harassment At Workplace…”
Veteran actor Kamal Haasan allegedly kissed Punnagai Mannan Co-Star Rekha Harris without her consent & at the behest of K Balachander.
When Kamal Haasan Allegedly Kissed His Co-Star Without Her Consent In An Iconic Scene In K Balachander’s Punnagai Mannan (Picture Credit: Instagram)
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Veteran actor Kamal Haasan is one of the biggest stars in the South film industry. His career spans several decades and encompasses a wide range of roles and genres. While he is one of the influential actors in the industry, he was once accused of forcibly kissing his co-star in an old Tamil film. Scroll down to know more.
Rekha Harris, a seasoned Tamil actress, recalls the experience while filming a memorable scene for the 1986 film Punnagai Mannan. This scene is from the movie, which depicts two in love people who have resolved to leap from a waterfall together to die because they are being kept apart by society. Before falling from the waterfall, the couple appears to kiss each other while crying.
During the shooting of this movie, Kamal Hassan was 32, and Rekha Harris was 16 years old. At first glance, this scene may seem tragic yet beautiful for most viewers who have watched and cried along with it until Rekha revealed the dark backstory of this scene in an interview.
During a conversation with Cinema Vikatan, Rekha Harris stated that in the 1986 Tamil film directed by Balachander, a kiss was added to a scene without her knowledge or agreement. The filmmaker had included a kiss between Kamal Haasan‘s character and the other character right before they were ready to commit suicide, the actor stated, adding that this is what actually happened. The other character, however, was not aware of this brand-new situation twist. “She told the director about the kiss,” the veteran actress recalled, “and he dismissed it, saying, ‘It was normal, and it didn’t have any vulgarity.'” K Balachander allegedly told Rekha that there is no vulgarity in the play and that we must show the characters’ kinship and affection for one another.
The well-known actress continued by expressing her worry that her father would disapprove of the scene after the shoot with Haasan. Harris claimed that the incident ‘haunted’ her for days on end but that she was powerless to stop it.
Back in 2020, when the interviews were out, it went viral on social media. Rekha Harris recalls the event with ease and a strong sense of “I’ve-made-peace-with-it” attitude. Many people, however, believed that it was simply another instance of workplace sexual harassment where a woman’s consent was not valued. Many even remarked that Rekha and the interviewer appeared to be in good spirits when discussing the incident, illustrating how much more we need to learn about workplace s*xual harassment.
While one user wrote, “Care to highlight this s*xual harassment by @ikamalhaasan or will you perform an ostrich hide?” (sic), another talked about the involvement of two big names from the industry and how it could be one of the reasons why this didn’t get the kind of attention it should have. The tweet read, “WTF! This would have made the headlines if it happened in Hollywood. This is proper ‘s*xual harassment at the workplace’. Worst is, they’ve even planned it. But since it’s Kamal saaaaar and Balachandar saaaaar, it should be fine I guess.” (sic).
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