The damage doesn't end with an apology

Nine years after accusing producer Sanjay Kohli of sexual harassment, actress Shilpa Shinde recently admitted on a podcast that her allegations were false. Explaining her recent return to the show Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain!, she stated: “No one, including Sanjay Kohli’s wife, asked me to clarify anything. But I was carrying a lie inside me, and that was hurting me. That’s why I decided to speak up.”

This is not a simple clarification, nor is it a standard apology. With a few casual remarks on a podcast, Shinde has raised questions about years of courageous, painstaking work by women fighting for workplace safety. In one fell swoop, she has undermined a battle that took a generation to build. Reporting misconduct and calling out powerful men in the workplace has never been easy; Shinde has just made it significantly harder.

When a prominent celebrity makes a false allegation because she was n the midst of a workplace dispute, she actively harms the cause of every survivor struggling to find the courage to speak up. Shinde has not only silenced genuine voices; she legitimised a lie for nearly a decade, feeding directly into the patriarchal narrative that women use these laws as vendettas.

In late 2017, it took the singular voice of actor Alyssa Milano to ignite the global #MeToo campaign, creating a safe space that eventually brought down powerful predators like Harvey Weinstein. The ripple effect reverberated across the globe, eventually arriving in India. For a brief moment, as women spoke out, it felt as though film industries across the country were finally being forced to confront their worst secrets. Accountability seemed within reach.

But that momentum was tragically short-lived, proving just how deeply entrenched the systemic power imbalances truly are. The consequences for perpetrators have been fleeting — the one-year ban handed to filmmaker Sajid Khan by the IFTDA in 2018 is a case in point. Meanwhile, survivors face endless trauma. Consider the infamous 2017 assault case of a leading female actor in Kerala, allegedly by actor Dileep; nearly a decade later, the judicial process drags on. While that horrific incident sparked a monumental shift, eventually prompting the formation of the Women in Cinema Collective and the landmark Hema Committee report, the stark reality is we’ve barely made a dent.

Instances of false allegations by a woman of Shinde’s stature weaponise this exhausting system against real victims. A woman within the industry should be a voice that champions her tribe, not an adversary who pushes the battle years backward.

Breaking decades of silence to call out abuse enabled by powerful men requires an unimaginable amount of strength. When a public figure treats a sexual harassment claim as a way to use it to her professional advantage, an apology cannot fix the collateral damage. Her acceptance of the lie isn't a relief, it is a betrayal - to all the women who have fought and are still fighting this battle against predatory men.