Janhvi Kapoor opens up about the time she felt ‘sexualised’
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Janhvi Kapoor doesn’t shy away from accepting the privileges she has grown up with. But while she has enjoyed those privileges from a young age, she has also suffered the negative consequences that come with it. In a recent conversation with filmmaker Karan Johar, Janhvi recalled the time when she was just 13 years old and attended an event with her parents, mother Sridevi and father Boney Kapoor, after which her photos ended up on what ‘seemed like a pornographic site’.
Janhvi shared in a video shared on Dharma Productions’ ‘YouTube’ channel: “The first time I felt sexualised by the media, I think I was 12 or 13 years old. I went to an event with mom and dad and there were pictures of me online. ‘Instagram’ and social media had just started to boom and I found pictures of me in what seemed like a pornographic site and boys in my school were like looking at it and laughing.”
Janhvi said that the constant objectification is a ‘very weird thing to navigate’ but she has been navigating it for a long time now. “Again, I am saying this repeatedly because I think I am very apologetic about where I come from and I need to get over that. I am sure other people deal with it in a much more different sense but in a much more real and genuinely terrifying sense,” she said.
Janhvi spoke about how she is perceived by others and said that while she does like to dress a certain way, she always finds herself second-guessing her choices. “On one hand, I do like dressing a certain way and I have been brought up in a household where I don’t feel apologetic about it, where I don’t feel judged by it but I do understand that there is a sentiment of a sort of character assassination that a girl faces when she dresses in a way that makes it seem like she is comfortable with her sexuality,” she said.
Janhvi said that she is still navigating these thoughts and said that she ‘doesn’t want to be perceived in a certain way’ and ‘wants to be taken seriously’. “But it goes against my core values as a feminist also to second guess that if I wear this, people will think a certain way,” she said.
Janhvi will next be seen in ‘Mr and Mrs Mahi’ with Rajkummar Rao.