Actress Radhika Apte has also put up loads of photos of herself on Twitter, but those aren't the ones that have made her a topic of conversation. In February, private pictures that were allegedly of Apte made their way online. Apte is a talented actress who has been working since 2005 and has a knack for picking unusual roles and standing out on the strength of her performances. This year, she’s won critical acclaim for Badlapur and Hunterrr. No one cared about any of this when those pictures started circulating on the internet.
Instead of talking about her upcoming films, Apte was faced with question after question about the graphic photographs. She issued a statement that the photos were not of her. With admirable good humour, Apte tweeted, “You guys! If you're going to get someone to pass off as naked me, she needs to look a lot more like me.”
Of course, that didn’t stop leading publications and a barrage of Bollywood tabloid bottom-feeders from splashing headlines to the effect of “LEAKED! Radhika Apte’s Nude Selfie”. Amazingly, a majority of these publications thought it was ok to publish the pictures as though they were news items.
This is a fairly unique Ferris wheel of crime. First, there is the alleged crime of phone hacking/stealing and the loss of privacy. Then the coverage of this said crime reinforces the violation by publishing the very data that has been stolen or hacked. This isn’t entertainment journalism, it’s crimeception.
As if that episode wasn’t bad enough, last week we learnt that an explicit scene from a short film by Anurag Kashyap had been leaked. Apte is the actress in the scene, which shows her lifting her clothes to reveal her nude body. Kashyap has since filed an FIR with the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell. On cue, again, there were headlines like “OMG! Viral Hua Radhika Apte ka nude clip”.
Now, since we seem unable to distinguish between a Gangnam Style video and a sex crime, here are some very basic guidelines about publishing and reacting to private or graphic images – particularly those of a famous person – that have been circulated without the subject’s consent:
Stop linking or publishing such content under the guise of reporting
A headline “XYZ Actress’s Nude Pictures leak on Whatsapp” followed by those very pictures is just clickbait. There is no need to carry the pictures in question. When you do, you’re basically feeding the public’s voyeuristic curiosity.
Some publications display a lot of misplaced sensitivity by slapping two black bars on the breasts and pubic area in such pictures. It’s not as though only the “sexy” bits of the photo violate the subject’s privacy. The whole photograph, edited or unedited, does. So do not do what sites like India.com, Bollywoodlife.com and Iluvcinema.in did and crop/ edit photos in an effort to feed the internet beast while pretending to report news. None of it is right.
An actress who is comfortable wearing ‘revealing’ outfits is not ‘fair game’
In a country where Deepika Padukone has to explain why zooming into her cleavage without her consent is wrong, this is obviously a difficult concept. However, let’s attempt to get things straight: if an actress has worn a bikini in a film or shot a sexy selfie, this does not mean she has waived her right to privacy. Unless she’s committed murder or is secretly dismembering puppies, she’s the only one who has the right to decide how she will present herself and what of her activities she’ll disclose to the public. I know, sounds crazy, right? But it’s true.
It’s NOT a publicity stunt
Years of reading fake news and swallowing the spiel that Bollywood PR machinery dishes out to the reading public has clearly taken its toll on us. We are now so jaded that the most humiliating and/ or exploitative incidents can be explained as publicity stunts. We are willing to accept that someone would actually orchestrate an assault upon their privacy, just for a few extra eyeballs. This is victim-shaming at a whole new level. From “She had it coming”, we’ve now reached the “She did it” stage.
Here’s a pro-tip: if it is a publicity stunt, then the truth will be out sooner rather than later. You’re free to crow if and when there is proof to that effect. Until then, stick to the facts, rather than wild theories.
Do not use these pictures to body shame the victim
It’s already horrible that the pictures are getting circulated, but to turn that into a platform debating the pros and cons of their bodies is a new low. Some decided that the leaked film clip gave them the right to comment about Apte’s body hair, for example. Never mind how politically incorrect and rude such observations are, they make you look uglier than a WWF wrestler with rotten eggs on his face.
Stop using the words ‘leak’ or ‘scandal’ for this type of crime
‘Leak’ has a connotation of a trivial and accidental action, but circulating private and/ or graphic images is a malicious, criminal act. And ‘scandal’ doesn’t even begin to capture the violation that has occurred. As Jennifer Lawrence said when hackers hacked her iCloud account and posted nude private pictures online, “It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime, it is a sexual violation.” Listen to Katniss.
Courtesy: First Post