Actress Radhika Apte has recently said in an interview that her role in the 2015 blockbuster Hindi movie Parched came at a time when she really needed it. While talking about her role in the film, Radhika also recalled the time a nude video was leaked when she was shooting for the ‘Clean Shaven’ segment for the anthology Madly.
Radhika played the role of a sex worker in Leena Yadav’s Parched that received critical acclaim from fans and critics.
Media reports had claimed back then that it was her in the video, which went viral on the Internet. Radhika Apte was quoted as saying, “I really needed a role like this because when you’re in Bollywood you’re constantly told what to do with your body and I always maintained that I would never do anything to my body or face.”
Explaining the ordeal she went through after the video was leaked, Radhika said, “When a nude clip of mine leaked, while I was filming Clean Shaven, I was trolled badly, and it did affect me. I couldn’t step out of the house for four days, not because of what the media was saying but because my driver, watchman, and my stylist’s driver recognised me from the images.”
Radhika also spoke about how the video had, in a way, helped her with her role in Parched. She was quoted as saying, “The controversial photographs were bare-skinned selfies, and anyone with a sane eye would have guessed it wasn’t me. I don’t think there is anything one can do, or one should do, but ignore it. Anything else is a waste of your time. So, when I stripped for Parched, I realised: ‘There’s nothing left for me to hide’.”
The actress told media sources last month that she was very fortunate to have landed some of the roles she had played in recent times. She was quoted as saying, “I have been very fortunate to get some great projects. But, during the lockdown, I realised that I’m not very happy with the kind of work I keep doing, due to which I am constantly busy.”
Radhika made her debut as an actress in Bollywood with a small role in the 2005 film Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi! She was last seen in the Disney+Hotstar series OK Computer, which also stars Vijay Varma and Jackie Shroff.