Acclaimed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has carved a niche for himself in Indian cinema over the years as a powerful talent with his films among which include Black Friday, Dev.D, Gangs of Wasseypur movies, Ugly, Raman Raghav 2.0, including the anthology Lust Stories and segments of the hit web series, Sacred Games. The acclaimed director had also proved his mettle as an actor and made his acting debut in Tamil as the antagonist in the Nayanthara, Atharvaa and Raashi Khanna starrer, Imaikkaa Nodigal. Last seen in the Netflix black comedy thriller film, AK vs AK, alongside Anil Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap's Choked received an average response and is currently working with Taapsee Pannu for the upcoming Do Baaraa.
In the meantime, Anurag Kashyap's daughter Aaliyah Kashyap took to social media to bring to light the sexual assault and rape threats she has been receiving after she recently posted a picture from a lingerie shoot. Sharing screenshots of the abusive comments, Aaliyah in a detailed statement spoke about the pain she has been enduring mentally due to the comments coming her way and wrote, "The past few weeks have been really hard on my mental health. Ever since I posted a photo of me in lingerie, I have been getting the most vile, degrading and disgusting comments, I have never felt more frightened than I have in the past few weeks to the point where I considered deleting my Instagram. I have tried to ignore the harassment and shrug it off but the truth is that we need to speak about it because these kinds of comments contribute to the rape culture that affects all women in India (and the rest of the world) in one way or the other."
Aaliyah Kashyap further added, "We seem to be a country that will hold candle marches for a woman after she’s been sexually assaulted but won’t protect a woman while she’s alive. And the truth is that women in India grow up being sexualized their whole lives, I have grown up with these kinds of comments to the point where it culminated into me being sexually assaulted as a minor by a middle-aged man. The double standard is that many of the people who have harassed me, along with many other women, are hypocrites. They love to pretend that they’re on a moral high ground buy in reality, they are the ones promoting rape culture that exists."
Concluding her detailed statement, Aaliyah said, "They are the same men that are fine with following me and consuming the content I post, yet choose to harass me. If you truly disagree with what I post, then you are free to unfollow me. Nothing I do or post is an invitation for sexual assault. Nothing any woman does, ever can be. So instead of policing women how to dress or how to act, we should unteach men the predatory behaviour that has been so normalised in our society. This is my body; my life and I choose what I want to do with it."
Below is Aaliyah Kashyap's post: