A few days after Diandra Soares shared her experience of being sexually harassed by Suhel Seth many years ago, the model-turned-actress tells BT that she is NOT shocked by his silence
Tanvi Trivedi (BOMBAY TIMES; October 26, 2018)

Soon after Diandra Soares came forward with her #MeToo experience about a week ago, the model-turnedactress had told BT that she was waiting for Suhel Seth to address her allegations, and only then would she talk more about it.

Now, Diandra says that she is not shocked by his silence over her accusation. In a chat with BT, she says, “I know why he is silent. He thinks that this will blow over, but I will not let this go till the day I die. Having said that, I am shocked that he hasn’t responded to the women, who accused him before me (author Ira Trivedi and filmmaker Natasha Rathore). It has been 15 days since all this happened and he is still silent. I want to ask, why some people are still working with him?”

Diandra is also vocal about how some women feel that she is doing this for publicity. She says, “There are so many intellectual women who feel that I am doing this for publicity. If I wanted publicity, I would have taken a superstar’s name, why would I name Suhel Seth? I have spoken to so many people in the last five days that I have lost appetite. I have not slept well. Do these people feel that we enjoy seeking publicity like this? The women who have spoken up in the #MeToo movement have families to support and they are only doing this so that such harassment stops.”

Talking about the incident that happened many years ago at a fashion week after-party, she shares, “There were so many people present at that party, but not one of them has come forward to support me. People feel this is a gender war, but it’s not. I have many male friends who are caring and protective.” She adds, “I want to question all the usual Bollywood placard holders who regularly tweet about issues. Where are they? I want to tell people that they should talk now. We also need more men to support the movement. The way I bit Suhels’ tongue and squeezed his b***s when he forcibly kissed me... in our country, do we have to teach our children to fight sexual predators and take care of themselves? What we need are stringent laws for such situations.”

Diandra Soares debunks pregnancy rumours, dishes dirt on housemates and discusses Bollywood plans
Subhash K Jha (DNA; December 16, 2014)


ON MOVIES
She says, “I already have two films both produced by Pooja Bhatt, one of them directed by Soni Razdan. They were supposed to start in September-October. Luckily they got pushed to to February 2015. These are my baby steps into movies. I’ve never planned my life. Whenever I plan, I mess it up. So I go with the flow. Let me see, what’s in store.”

ON RUMOURED PREGNANCY
Soares was always in the news during her time in the house, right from the start to the very end, when pregnancy rumours started gaining ground. She rubbishes the gossip, saying, “I never said I am pregnant because I am not. One would hardly make a joke of something so important. But yes,I did have to go out for a check-up because of a hormonal imbalance. This was the second time that I was going out for medical reasons, the first time it was to a dentist.So I decided to play a prank on housemates by saying I am not coming back to the house for health reasons. I absolutely never ever once said that I was pregnant.”

ON GAUTAM GULATI
Diandra pauses, then says, “Our feelings were very confused. It would be very difficult to define our feelings. I don’t think we can be sure of our mutual feelings. It’s all so messed up.” She says she met Gulati for the first time on the show. And yet they seemed to hit it off so well.... She adds, “As far as Gautam is concerned, I really don’t think I can interact with someone who is so spineless...Would I want to meet him? I don’t know. Time heals all wounds, I guess.”

ON PUNEET ISSAR
Says Diandra, “I can’t wait to meet Puneet’s wife and to hang out with them in his house. I think he is a really nice person. But he’s too caught up in the game and behaving childishly. The respect that he commanded before Bigg Boss, has deserted him.”