#MeToo: Sruthi Hariharan finds supporters in Prakash Raj and Shraddha Srinath over her sexual harassment allegations against Arjun Sarja

October 22, 2018 - 7:59 PM IST

Sruthi Hariharan is the latest celebrity to join the #MeToo movement that has spread like wild fire in India. It seems that many skeletons that were locked in the closet of the entertainment industry has come tumbling out with many actresses gathering courage to speak up against the inappropriate behavior of high profile and powerful celebrities. Calling out to Arjun Sarja, Sruthi too considers herself to be one such woman who has decided to stand up against sexual harassment. The actress has apparently also found supporters from the South industry in Prakash Raj and actress Shraddha Srinath.

#MeToo: Sruthi Hariharan finds supporters in Prakash Raj and Shraddha Srinath over her sexual harassment allegations against Arjun Sarja

For the uninitiated, Sruthi Hariharan had accused Arjun Sarja of touching her inappropriately under the pretense of doing a romantic scene with the actress. The two had come together for the bilingual film Nibunan aka Vismaya. On the other hand, followed by her accusations, Arjun Sarja has decided to take legal action against the actress.

#metoo #comingout against all odds. Inspite of the all the comments, backlash and misogyny that will follow, I share my experiences below cos this is about a larger change! Bring it on ! #Speakup men and women . It's time. pic.twitter.com/xzjA8EnGjR
— sruthihariharan (@sruthihariharan) October 20, 2018

Coming to the support she has received from the industry, she found it in Prakash Raj. The actor took to twitter to share a post with the hashtag, ‘#IAmWithShruthiHariharan wherein he encouraged her to stand with truth:

@sruthihariharan ಶ್ರುತಿಹರಿಹರನ್.. ಅರ್ಜುನ್ ಸರ್ಜ ರವರ ಪ್ರಕರಣವನ್ನು ....ನಾವು ಸೂಕ್ಷಮತೆಯಿಂದ ...ಹೊಣೆಗಾರಿಕೆಯಿಂದ...ನೋಡಬೇಕಾಗಿದೆ....#justasking pic.twitter.com/15p5OxdLCw
— Prakash Raj (@prakashraaj) October 21, 2018

Besides him, another celebrity who came out in support of Sruthi was the co-actress Shraddha Srinath. In the same platform, the actress shared a series of posts wherein she revealed that she had discussed the same with Sruthi way back in 2016 during a chat show but then the actress hadn’t revealed the name and chose to refrain from doing so. But now that the #MeToo has gained immense momentum, it has motivated Hariharan to speak about the trauma she went through. Here’s a glimpse of Shraddha’s tweets:

I have known about this incident since November 2016, when @sruthihariharan and I attended a talk show together and the talk of casting couch and other related topics came up. Shruti didn't take names that day but off camera she told us what happened. https://t.co/lo2lkN14H2
— Shraddha Srinath (@ShraddhaSrinath) October 20, 2018

I'm sorry you went through what you did Shru. Nobody should feel uncomfortable at their work place, and nobody should be in a position to make someone feel uncomfortable. https://t.co/lo2lkN14H2
— Shraddha Srinath (@ShraddhaSrinath) October 20, 2018

Coming to Arjun Sarja, he has denied all the allegations. He also added that his own daughter in the industry and keeping in mind the same, he doesn’t want trivialize something as important as the #MeToo movement. In these reports, Arjun has maintained that he doesn’t want people to misuse something as serious as sexual harassment for publicity. He also asserted that he has worked with top actresses in the industry but none of them have ever thrown such accusations on him.

On the other hand, Sruthi and her supporters are also facing immense backlash from Arjun fans who refuse to believe that their idol could sexually harass someone. The actress has been receiving many tweets slamming her for the allegations and also tweets asking for proof of the incident that happened with her.

Also Read: #MeToo: Malayalam actor Siddique refuses to deny Dileep any job opportunities; questions if Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar would have left their films if they were accused of the same