September 4, 2024, is a date Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta would never forget. On that fateful evening, when she tried to join Kolkata rape-murder protest, she was heckled, jostled and booed. In an exclusive chat with Zoom, Rituparna Sengupta relives the nightmare.
Excerpts from the interview
You must be shaken even now.
September 4 was a night to be remembered. I never thought that this was the face of our state. I was completely disillusioned. I know people are agitated. They are in a lot of pain. I am in a lot of pain too.
Do you have as much right to protest as anyone else?
So I have always been voicing for victim's justice from day one. If you look at my posts from day one to today, I have never done anything except ask for her justice. I went to the protest march with the best of intentions.
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Maybe the protestors who suddenly started protesting against your presence felt you were there for publicity?
I have done my bit in whatever I can do. I don't know what I can do. But whatever I could do, I have actually tried. But what I saw on September 4 was complete hooliganism. It was a complete disaster. I just went, not as anybody, but as everybody over there to light the candle.
Tell me what exactly transpired.
I went there. I sat. I lit the candle. There was a lot of commotion. People were there. Some people were singing. Some people were painting. Some people were talking. They wanted to hand over the mic to me to speak. But such a crowd and so much commotion. We couldn't hear anything. The press was talking to me. I just told them that I want justice. And I am an apolitical person. I want justice for the victim. But looking at the larger picture, and setting aside what I’ve gone through, I feel a sense of satisfaction.
Why is that?
The full justice that we in Kolkata desire to come for her is not far away. And I have full faith that justice will be served to the victim. Because the whole movement, the uprising of all over the country, all over the world will never go to waste. Because that's what people have made the priority in their lives justice should be served. People are on the road. They are angry, agitated, infuriated.
So you empathise with the movement in spite of what happened?
My grievance is a very small matter when seen in the light of the larger picture. I could understand the protestors’ anger because I was also angry and infuriated about this whole thing. Because what has happened to her is absolutely unacceptable. And this cannot be accepted. We have to voice against it. And I am part of that voice.
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That said it is shocking to see you being heckled for joining in the protest.
What happened has me completely dumbfounded. I am still in a state of shock. I don't know who these people were. Suddenly they besieged me from nowhere. And a huge mass, a huge group of people, this suddenly started. I was sitting with them. I was trying to stand with them. Nothing could be done. They were all over the press. They were pushing the press people. They were pushing the other people. They hurt a few journalists. I got hurt. I could have died yesterday actually. I don't know who these people are. I don't know whether they even know what they are doing. I don't know whether they are even part of this movement or not. I suspect they are just kind of trying to make mileage from this whole movement. I don't know where this sudden exodus of people from. They don't have any kind of understanding of what's happening because the focus is the movement, the protest, and not embarrassing and harassing a person like me who has always been in this movement from day one. I am an apolitical person.
I agree. Unlike some of your top-notch colleagues in the Bengali film industry who are afraid to open their mouths, you are non-political.
I am not going to talk about anything political because I am not a political person. I don't understand politics. But as a human being, as a woman, as a person, as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife, I will definitely come and speak about our rights. The kind of heinous crime which has been done to a woman in this city is absolutely not accepted. A working woman, just like me, who has been in this institution where she has studied, in this institution where she is a doctor, she has been abused, she has been murdered, raped. This is absolutely not acceptable. That is my cry for her and I will definitely seek justice. But at the same time, how can these people harass a woman when she is voicing her protest? I don't know, suddenly this infuriated mob came all over me, came over the press, and when I was trying to make a way that I should leave now, that time they became even more furious that I was sort of leaving. And I don't know what they did. They broke my car. I got hurt. Few journalists got hurt. And they were banging my car. I don't even know what they wanted. I even opened my car door and I was trying to reason with them ‘Look, I have come here to talk to you people, to be with you people.’ But what is this? What is this movement for? What is this protest for? If the protesters behave like this, they want to just make a noise.