Action hero Arjun, is well known star for Telugu audience. His movies Gentleman Oke Okkadu, Hanuman junction, Sri Manjunatha etc were very big hits in Telugu. Even though he is from Kannada industry, he has fans across South India. Me too movement that started in Bollywood with Tanushree comments on Nana Patekar, now started in Kannada film industry too. Sandalwood actress Sruthi Hariharan has accused her co-star Arjun, one of the biggest stars of South India , of sexual misconduct. She wrote lengthy post in Facebook in which she revealed how Arjun hugged her without permission, ran his hands intimately up and down her back and pulled her closer during rehearsals of a scene. She also told, she was grown up watching Arjun movies and big fan of him but he misbehaving like that left her shocked. She posted as below.
“I was shooting for a bilingual film which starred Arjun Sarja. A man whose movies I have grown up watching. I was excited avout the opportunity. The first few days seemed normal, I played his wife in the film and that day we were to do a romantic scene where we had to hug each other after a brief dialogue. During the rehearsal, we delivered our lines and Mr. Arjun hugs me. With no forewarning or permission, he runs his hands intimately up and down my back. He pulls me closer with my body taut against his and asks the director if we could use this idea of foreplay in the scene. I was aghast. I am all for depicting realism in cinema, but this felt absolutely wrong. His intent seemed anything but professional. I hated that he did it and angry that I didn’t know what to say then. The incident happened in front of at least 50 people on a shooting set- it happened at my workplace. I wanted nothing but to stay away from him rather than be tolerant and put up with his lewd and completeun professional behavior.”
With this, Arjun became first one to be named and shamed in Sandalwood industry as part of ‘Me too ‘ movement. Even other actress made allegations on directors, but she didn’t reveal their names. But Shruthi darely named Arjun. In fact, in South India, he became the first top actor to be named as part of “Me too” movement. Arjun is yet to respond on these comments.
We will have to wait and see how many other top heroes will be named in future.
