Mumbai, July 29 (IANS) Television actor Harshad Chopda opened up about experiencing sexual assault as a child and recalled the trauma that he had kept buried for years. He went on to share that he never spoke about it as he “was scared”.
Harshad opened up about the shocking revelation in the latest episode of Lock Upp 2, when he had to share a secret with the code word ‘childhood’.
“I was around 9-10 years old. Our parents tend to trust other people with their children. Once they had left me with some trusted people, who were not only trusted by the family but by the whole community.”
He said: “As a child, I was a little submissive. In the night, someone was rubbing himself on me. I was fully clothed; it was just that someone was on top of me and rubbing.”
The actor shared that he didn’t know what was happening.
“I was scared. I acted like I was sleeping. I have never told anyone about this before because I didn’t even know what had happened. My nickname is Monu. He called me to the balcony to show me something, and he had to lift me. Then again, he was picking me up and doing something which again I did not understand. I wasn’t sure how to ask. I was scared.”
An emotional Harshad urged all parents not to leave their children alone. He requested parents to talk to their kids.
“For people like me, whatever happens, we need to blurt out and discuss things so that the person is exposed! Those people are still living their lives joyously and I am standing here with my… That is the only reason why I have a little bit of fear when it comes to gay men. I don’t hate them I am just scared of them.”
Farah Khan and Riteish Deshmukh host the Netflix show.
The show currently has names such as Pamala Serena, Akanksha Chamola, Shilpa Shinde, Akanksha Chaudhary, Ram Kapoor, Yogesh Rawat, Shreya Kalra, Shivangi Joshi, Harshad Chopra, and Varun Yadav, aka Laila, to name a few.
The first edition of “Lock Upp” was hosted by Kangana in 2022. Karan Kundrra was introduced as Jailor for the entire season. Munawar Faruqui was named as the winner.
–IANS
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