Actor Bhumi Pednekar recently reacted to the Hema Committee report, which was released in August last year, that exposed the harassment and sexual exploitation faced by women in the Malayalam film industry.

“It is one part of the Indian fraternity where proper legal process was followed, and heartbreaking, gruesome details came out. As a woman in India today, I’m scared,” the 35-year-old said at the ABP summit.

“I feel scared when my younger cousin, who lives with me in Mumbai, goes to college and doesn’t come home by 11 pm. I get nervous,” Bhumi said, adding, “There’s deep conditioning of power. There’s a problem when front-page news is filled with reports about violence against women. This is not a one-off thing; this is a regular occurrence.”

In response to a question about the casting couch phenomenon in the Hindi film industry, the actor — who previously worked as an assistant casting director at a production house — mentioned that although she has not personally experienced it, she recognises that such incidents are widespread within the industry.

“Before I became an actor, I was casting in an institution that was clean and organized. My casting director, Abhimanyu Ray, would never cast a girl without me being present in the room. Now that’s the ecosystem in which I grew up. I was 17 when I started as a casting director, and I’ve no first-hand experience of it. But does that mean it doesn’t happen? No, it does because we’ve had many women who have dared to come out and speak about it. I would never negate a girl’s experience,” she said.

The actor also addressed the glaring gender pay gap that persists in Bollywood and said it happens across all industries globally. “The CEO of any major conglomerate, if she is a woman, will undoubtedly earn a lower salary. The pay gap is even more in the film industry,” she claimed.

Bhumi also recalled the time she was paid less than what her male counterpart earned for a project: “I was offered 5% of what my male counterpart got. I made this comparison because he and I had the same number of hits. We were leading the film... and yet he got 80% more. I did that film because I didn’t have a choice. I wanted to create an ecosystem where I can empower myself and others,” she said.