After Farhan Akhtar, Yami Gautam Supports Kaabil Co-star Hrithik Roshan

After Farhan Akhtar, actress Yami Gautam who shared the screen space with Hrithik Roshan in Kaabil earlier this year, backed her co-star in the ongoing controversy with Kangana Ranaut.

Like Farhan, Yami too took to her official Facebook account to express her opinion on the much-talked about row without mentioning their names.

Yami clearly mentioned in her post she didn’t pen the post “as a co-star or even as a friend". Instead, she wrote it as “a woman and a concerned citizen of the country" and that she would try to get her point across “as succinctly and as objectively as possible".

Read Yami’s entire post on Facebook…

I am usually not very vocal on social media, but I am making an exception today, since as a woman, what I am seeing right now terrifies me.

This is concerning the matter surrounding two of the biggest stars in our industry. I have, fortunately, had the opportunity to work with one of them. However, I am not writing this as a co-star or even as a friend. I am writing this as a woman and a concerned citizen of the country, and I will try to get my point across as succinctly and as objectively as possible.

I am no legal expert. And I am not privy to the details of the case. I know what has been reported in the media, and I am all for good, honest reporting. However, somehow, the tussle has turned into a gender war, with a certain faction of the society having already declared the man guilty. People have presumed that since he is a man, he must be the guilty party, since that is how it has always been. Men have oppressed women in one way or another for centuries, and it's being presumed that it is the same in this case, too.

And that's dangerous. Whatever happened to innocent, until proven guilty? Whatever happened to letting the law take its own course? Yes, a lot of times, at least in this country, we have take to the streets to get justice. But that's not the case here. The police is investigating, and both the parties are privileged enough that they can represent themselves in court and fight this out legally. Sadly, our law and order is sort of classist, but let's not digress.

Here is why this vilification of a man based on make-believe evidence is dangerous. If the gender-card is allowed to take precedence over facts and objectivity, it will be a serious blow to the on-going efforts of getting women an equal standing with the opposite sex. If this baseless trial-by-media is allowed to continue, where one party has been presumed to be guilty, there is a good likelihood that people might lose faith in this equal-rights-for-all movement that has picked up momentum in India only in recent years.

I am not exonerating anyone here. I am also not suggesting malice by any one party. All I am saying is, let's not make it a fight between genders. Let's keep it a fight between two people who may or may not have corresponded in the past. Let the facts be unearthed and until then, let's reserve our judgements.

Just because this is a fight between a man and a woman does not mean it has to be a fight between genders. Making everything a gender issue can easily distract us from addressing legit sexist issues that plague our society.

Even though Yami refrained from mentioning the names of the 'concerned stars', it is clear that she was talking about Kangana and Hrithik.