Entertainment
oi-Prakash KL
Actor Radhika Apte has revealed that she was so shaken after an intimate clip of hers was leaked that she had to ask her own driver and spot dada if they had seen the video and tell them they would have to protect her if they chose to continue working with her, according to a report in India Today.
Recalling the disturbing aftermath of the leak, Radhika, who was recently seen in Netflix’s new series Lust Stories 3, said she was living alone at the time and was worried about her safety. She even offered to send the leaked clip to her staff so they could watch it and decide whether they were comfortable continuing to work with her.
Actor Radhika Apte disclosed that a leaked intimate clip caused significant distress, confining her indoors for four days and prompting her to address safety directly with her driver and spot boy. The incident highlighted the severe personal invasion caused by leaked videos.
“I eventually called my driver and my spot dada and told them, ‘There is a clip that has been leaked. Have you seen it? Because if you have not, I’ll send it to you. Watch it. If you’re okay with it, then you have to protect me. Otherwise, do not work with me. Here’s your salary; you can go’,” Radhika told India Today.
The actor said both of them reassured her that they would look after her, but the incident had already taken a serious toll on her. She revealed that she could not step out of her house for four days after the clip was leaked.
“And they both said, ‘We will look after you’. I was really scared because I was living alone in an apartment at the time. So yes, it can get quite tricky,” she said.
The leak also began affecting her everyday interactions. Radhika recalled being told by her stylist that her driver had repeatedly watched the clip and would ask whether she was going to the actor’s house. Her watchman had also seen it.
“But when it came to sexuality, the clip of mine leaked, and it became really difficult. I remember my stylist telling me that her driver couldn’t stop looking at the clip and kept asking her, ‘You’re going to her house?’ My watchman had seen it as well. Things like that started happening, and it became very difficult to deal with,” she said.
Radhika said the experience showed how quickly a leaked intimate video can move beyond the screen and invade an actor’s personal life.
“We were talking about being able to do intimate scenes, but once something I had done was leaked, I literally couldn’t step out of the house for four days. The problem is that it can come home very quickly. Your doorbell can ring, and somebody can be outside your house because they felt offended. So, it’s not that easy. It’s much more complicated,” she added.
Radhika Apte’s widely discussed “leaked video” was not a private MMS. It was as footage from a fictional film project, an intimate scene from a short film directed by Anurag Kashyap which was circulated online without its original context. The incident occurred in 2015 and the Mumbai Police had registered a case over its unauthorised circulation.
Apart from the above clips, a few clips from her web series including from ‘Sister Midight’ and ‘Parched’ had raised eyebrows.
The 41-year-old actor also revealed that fear had once influenced another major professional decision. Without naming the project, she said she walked away from a role she “really, really wanted to do” because she feared the possible consequences for her family amid what she described as the political environment at the time.
“There was also a project I really, really wanted to do – I can’t mention which one – but I couldn’t do it because I got very scared,” she said, adding that director Anurag had also advised her against taking it up.
