Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut shared a traumatic experience of her childhood in the show Lock Upp. The host of the show shared she had to face sexual assault in childhood and she can never forget this.
Kangana told her painful story after a comedian and one of the contestants Munawar Faruqui revealed he was sexually assaulted as a kid.
In the show, Munawar decides to save Saisha Shinde by revealing his secret. He said, “I was 6-years-old when I was sexually assaulted by my relative for 4-5 consecutive years. It was a very close family member, but considering I was young I couldn’t understand anything, it turned extreme in the fourth year. I didn’t share this with anyone because eventually my family and I had to face them every time.”
“I thought my dad knew about this, but I think he also felt like me, so how can he share this with someone?” said Munawar.
Kangana appreciated Munawar for revealing his secret. Kangana told him, “Munawar, so many kids every year go through this kind of harassment but no one discusses this on a public platform. Everyone’s touched inappropriately in childhood. This has been experienced by many including me. In my town when I was quite small, a boy, who was a few years older than me, used to inappropriately touch me. But I didn’t know back then what it meant. Every child has to go through this no matter how protective their family is.”
She added, “but another important thing you said is that before sharing it, everyone feels they are responsible for the incident. This education can’t be given to kids as they are too young. You can’t sexualise them or tell them the difference between a good touch and a bad touch. It’s such a big crisis in society. And kids suffer so much due to this. They get traumatised and scarred for life. They face so many issues later in life. So this is a platform we are using to bring awareness about child abuse and sexual abuse. Munawar and I both have faced it.”
She later consoled Munawar by sharing her painful story. She said, “This guy was three to four years elder than me, perhaps he was exploring his sexuality. He would call us, get us all to strip and check us. We would not understand it at the time. There is a huge stigma behind this, especially for men. It is very brave of you, Munawar, that you chose this platform to share your experience.”
Lock Upp streams on ALTBalaji and MX Player.