As a loyal viewer and an ardent fan, we expect our celebrities to practice what they preach in their life. STAR Plus’ flagship show Mann Ki Awaaz Pratigya is a show that throws light on the grave issue of eve-teasing and the lead actress is leading by example.Pratigya, the protagonist of the show, who has been a victim of eve-teasing on the show doesn’t take it lying low. She fights against it and makes sure that the culprits repent their wrong-doing. But Pratigya’s valour and confidence isn’t limited to just on-screen. In real life too she stands tall against the miscreants. Pratigya slapped a guy today morning on her way back home from the shoot. Reason the guys eve-teased her and passed lewd comments at her.
Says Pratigya, ‘’After shooting the entire night, I was returning home. I was hungry so thought of dropping by a popular vada pav chain and munch on a vada pav. There is a college nearby and so the place was crowded with college students. They recognised me and started discussing the show and my character. I was overwhelmed to receive rave reviews for the show from them. But there was a group of three guys who were standing at a distance of 10 feet from the stall. They too recognised me but what irked me was their lewd and filthy comments directed towards me. One of them said that I looked 'like an item in real life too' to which other responded saying that 'Krishna must be having fun shooting with me'. Their comments were vulgar enough to instigate any girl for summoning them. I went up to them and slapped one of them hard across his face. But this didn’t deter them a wee-bit as the other guy said something again. I argued with them about their bawdy behaviour towards girls.’’
‘’I was later told by the girls standing near the stall that those boys have been troubling them too and have been passing vulgar comments at them too. They have been eve-teasing them all this while. I was aghast to know that till date nobody had gathered the courage to stand up to these road-side romeos and as if they were waiting for me to teach these guys a lesson," adds the girl.
Apparently, Pratigya has never ever faced an ugly situation of being teased by guys till now. And this was the first time she was at the receiving end of it. The girl says that she was shaking after the incident for a while but was later calmed down by her mother. ‘’Anger was building up inside me even after I had slapped the guy. I was taken aback by their audacity. I was shaking after the incident and was a little nervous. My parents are proud of me but my mother got a little tensed. She was worried as she felt that this might malign my image as a celebrity. I am still getting flashes of the incident that took place a couple of hours ago,’’ quips Pratigya.
Pratigya feels that girls should stand up for themselves and fight against such miscreants. Pratigya feels that a brave act put up by the girls can help the society get rid of such problems. Says she, ‘’I wish the girls who had been victimised by these boys had taught them a lesson before I landed in the tight spot. I would like them to stand up for themselves against all these social demons,’’ signs off Pratigya.
Pratigya clearly understands her responsibilty and practices what she preaches on screen. Hope we too take a leaf out of her diary.
Catch Pratigya in action every Mon-Fri at 10:30 PM on STAR Plus.