Mandana Karimi has quit Bollywood in anger after Sajid Khan joined the Bigg Boss house for season 16. Almost four-years back, several women had come forward to accuse Sajid for exploiting his position of power, and Karimi was one of them. She had claimed that he asked her to remove her clothes when she went to meet him for Humshakals, saying, ‘If I like what I see, you might get the part’.
Now, she says she is not shocked that he is back in the limelight without any repercussions for his actions. “To be honest, I’m not surprised to see him back in the spotlight. For people, life has become like I will put my head under the sand. If it is going to benefit me, and I can make money, then who cares? That shows why the MeToo movement in India and many other countries didn’t really reach anywhere,” Karimi says.
She continues, “It was just a few women, they came, they spoke and that was it. What is the action? Who is boycotting these people? Nothing is going to happen. Because we are talking about the bigger industry, which is a place where someone is someone’s mom, boyfriend, girlfriend or husband. It’s like you, you scratch my back, and I will scratch your back”.
Watching Sajid onscreen has made her upset, but she is not surprised. “It does make me feel sad. To be honest, that is also the reason I have not worked for the last seven months. I’m not working anymore. I didn’t go to any auditions. I don’t want to work in Bollywood. I don’t want to be involved with an industry where there is no respect for women,” says the actor, who was last seen in reality show Lock Upp. Here, she claims that her dues from the reality show are yet to be cleared. “I’m still fighting for my money. My full payment hasn’t come, the show was over five months back. I am still waiting to know why they aren’t clearing my dues,” says the actor, who hails from Iran.