The legendary actress Daisy Irani spoke that she was raped and abused by the man her family trusted when she was barely six years old.
She told, “The man who did this was supposed to be my guardian. He accompanied me to a film shoot (Hum Panchhi Ek Dal Ke) in Madras. One night in the hotel room he violated me, hit me with a belt and warned me that he would kill me if I ever told anyone about what had happened.”She continued, “That man is dead and gone. His name was Nazar, he was related to the famous singer Zohrabai Ambalewaali. Obviously, he had contacts in the film industry. My mother was hell-bent on making me a star. I made my debut in the Marathi movie, Baby. So Uncle Nazar (she rolls her eyes here) had accompanied me to the shoot of Hum Panchhi Ek Dal Ke in Madras. I can recall the incident only in flashes, but I do remember the killing pain, and the visual of him belting me. The next morning, I was back at the studio as if nothing had happened. For years, I couldn’t dare to tell my mother about what he had done..”
The moment may have passed but the scars remain and Daisy confessed that this wasn’t the only time when someone ‘touched’ her and made her ‘uncomfortable’.
She said, “When I was 15 or so, my mother made me wear a sari, padded me up with a new-fangled sponge, and left me alone with producer Mallikchand Kochar, who was planning a film called Mere Huzoor then, at his office located somewhere between Maratha Mandir cinema and the Tardeo circle. It was all quite hilarious… He joined me on the sofa, and started touching me… I knew what was on his mind. I took out the sponge things and handed them to him. He was furious. Now why did I do that? Because, I’ve always seen the funnier side of things.”
When asked how she dealt with the trauma, Daisy revealed, “All I can say is as I grew up, I started flirting outrageously, I would tease and taunt men. I did not even understand what I was doing. I became badtameez (without manners). With time, my mother did get to know about the Madras incident but what could be done really?”
At the age of 21, she was married to scriptwriter and director KK Shukla but it wasn’t happily ever after for her. She said, “KK…poor fellow, he’s no more as you know. Before he proposed to me, he used to play Cupid between my boyfriends and me. Our marriage lasted the course somehow although I once told him I knew of his extra-marital affair… He didn’t know where to look!”
At the age of 68, Daisy Irani continues to work and was last seen in Shah Rukh Khan starrer Happy New Year in 2014.
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