The beautiful and talented Celina Jaitly’s social media handle stands out from other actors. She beautifully writes each and every post and also uses her following to raise important issues. In August, days after the horrific rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, Celina bravely shared about her experience growing up in Lucknow and how she faced sexual harassment when she was in Class 6.
EXCLUSIVE: Celina Jaitly THUNDERS: “Indian girls are conditioned to take blame for man’s atrocities; girls in Europe cannot even imagine this harassment”; also reveals, “My father was Hindu, mother was Christian; my music was impacted by their different religions in…”
In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, Celina opened up about it and also talked about her musical journey.
Your tweet on ‘The victim is always at fault’ was quite touching and it was brave of you to open up about it. What feedback did you get for this tweet? Did people open up to you about similar experiences that they faced in their lives?
Aurat biki toh tawaif. Aur mard bike toh dulhe ban gaye. We live in a society where despite progress on many levels all women are persecuted for the wrongdoings of a man. This is unfortunately the hard-hitting reality of growing up a girl/woman in India. When I wrote about my many sexual assault and harassment experiences in my post on Instagram, I had no idea thousands of women would share the post and come forward saying “I relate”, “This is my story too” etc. Each and everyone is agreeing that we were always made to believe that we are at fault.
I am so saddened to see that almost every woman or girl commenting there is replying with “I relate” or “I have gone through a similar experience”. Why do we have to go through this? What did we do so wrong; what is our fault? We have always been victims, so much so that we were taught to live with it as a reality. My heart is breaking for all my sisters and all the little girls who are to grow up experiencing this. Now having lived in Dubai, Singapore and Europe for the past 14 years, 99% of little girls and their families cannot even imagine in their wildest of dreams having to grow up with this harassment in these countries. We, Indian girls, on the other hand, are conditioned to grow up taking the blame for man’s endless atrocities against us and our innocent childhoods.
Your tweet on your brother was lovely. There’s a point you mentioned ‘except spreading the rumour in school that I was kidnapped by aliens’! Can you please tell us what exactly happened? Why did he spread the rumour, what happened once the rumour was spread and how did you react when you learned about it?
A bond between siblings is something that is truly unique, especially between brothers and sisters. We tattled on each other from the time we first learned to speak and then in the blink of an eye, we can keep even the deepest darkest secret from our family and friends. The humour with which we operated in childhood often got us both into trouble. I always got my brother into trouble with Dad and was quite a bossy sister. It was his way of getting back at me although it got grounded for a month (laughs)! My brother and I were school kids in the late 90’s and big fans of the famous X Files. The entire school was caught in the fervour of Scully, Mulder and Alien abductions. Hence, 7th-grade rumours were very believable I guess (laughs)!
You sing beautifully and your song versions have got millions of views. When did you realize you have a passion for singing? Did you ever try to sing for one of your films when you were acting?
I have been very passionate about music since I was a toddler but I never had the opportunity to train in music. I wanted to learn Hindustani classical desperately but that could not happen due to my father’s military service. My father was an infantry officer in the army. Hence, we moved practically every 1-1.5 years. Classical training in the back and beyond of India’s small military bases was not a possibility. So, I tried to make the best of what I had through singing in church and mandir choirs. My father was a Hindu and my mother was a Christian. As a result, my music was heavily impacted by their different religions in the most positive ways. In my few years in Lucknow, I had a very good school music teacher who further helped me groom my singing skills. She always said that I had a very unique and expressive voice and she was saddened by the fact that I couldn’t train in classical music.
I lent my voice to a song for the first time a few years ago at a United Nations Free and Equal campaign for LGBTQI equality before Section 377 was repealed. I sang the cover of Lata ji’s ‘Uthey Sab Ke Kadam’ recreated by Neeraj Shreedhar of Bombay Vikings. At that point, no big singer wanted to associate their voice with an anthem for LGBTQIA equality. I stepped in to give the track not only my voice as a singer but my voice as an impact maker so that the message that the song implied would be ‘heard’ by millions. It was my first single as a recording artist and it received over two million views online. It also became one of the United Nations’ most-watched videos ever.
Also Read: Celina Jaitly on sexual abuse of kindergarten children in Badlapur, “Only public executions of the perpetrators will set an example”
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