'Social' impact: How Renuka Shahane went from being Ms Nice to Ms Vocal

Renuka Shahane

It's 5.30 in the evening, and we are dot on time for our interview with actress Renuka Shahane at a posh, suburban club. Still occupied in a meeting that we were forewarned about, she answers our phone call, but pushes in a request, "Could you please wait for five minutes?" When her engagement ends 20 minutes later, the actress is sincerely apologetic, and though not required, makes it a point to explain what caused the hold-up. She's the same person, who a month ago, refused to say sorry or cow down to loyal fans of actor Salman Khan, when she created a stir with a Facebook post that questioned the Bollywood superstar's acquittal in the chinkara poaching case.

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Though film projects continue to keep Renuka Shahane busy, the actress says she is more at home with her writing projects. Pic/Nimesh Dave

While the post won her over 10,000 likes, and more than 3,100 shares, with comments oscillating between "brave woman" to "shame on you lady", the Marathi actress, tells us now, in the most of matter-of-fact way, "It was just my opinion, on my timeline."

"And, I have been doing that ever since I discovered social media, way back in 2008," she informs. "I find Facebook a great platform to put my thoughts out. It's not restrictive like Twitter, where you have only 140 characters to say what you feel," she says.

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Pic/Yogen Shah

That it took an "anti-Khan" post to race the face of TV's most popular cultural show Surabhi, back in the limelight, is not lost on her. "People thought I was doing it for publicity," she says. "Do I need it?" she asks, and immediately follows it with an affirmative, "No!"

Despite a few acting projects that keep her busy, 49-year-old Shahane, who is married to award-winning actor Ashutosh Rana and is mother to two sons Shauryaman and Satyendra, likes to describe herself as a full-time homemaker, and a content one at that too. Having an opinion, she says, comes naturally to her, thanks to her mother, veteran writer, theatre critic and journalist Shanta Gokhale. "Her core values of honesty, non-discrimination and independent thinking, have passed down to me," says Shahane.

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Only last week, she made news again, when she robustly opposed the use of fairness creams. "Achievement has nothing to do with the colour of any body's skin!!! So stop watching the regressive, moronic, simpering, over made-up women & their inconsequential, irritating male counterparts in our daily soaps on tv & get a reality check about what we as Indians have been achieving (sic)," she wrote, possibly taking a dig at her own fraternity.

Her views, sometimes angry, often thought-provoking have made her a talking point of late. "All we need today is for one post to go viral, and then suddenly people watch out for what you have to say," she says, while referring to the Khan post. "But, honestly, I did not see this coming," she insists.

Here was an actress, who had once played Khan's doting bhabhi in the 1994 family drama Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, and was now being openly critical about his acquittal, when most of Bollywood was rallying around the actor. "This had nothing to do with Salman, the actor," she clarifies. "I have worked with him before, and he is genuinely one of the most generous and kindest people I have met." "I was questioning the legal system. The courts are one place where we expect justice, but are we getting that? Yes, I asked if money had exchanged hands...but it is not the first time that anyone has asked these questions,"
she says.

While her views resonated with some, Shahane wasn't prepared for the brickbats, she received. "I get trolled on Twitter constantly, and sometimes for the most harmless opinions. People have something negative to say about the most positive of things."

Her trolls spiralled when she published her thoughts on the chinkara case on July 25. "Salman's fans were so upset with me. They said illogical things, and took personal digs at me. One person was extremely mean and called me a 'prostitute'. I had to register a complaint with Maneka Gandhi, who only recently urged women harassed on social media, to contact her directly on her Twitter handle," she says. "The problem is that when you are a blind follower of anybody, it results in being nasty towards anybody who might not conform to your view," she says.

However, the issue here, she says, is being a woman and having an opinion. "People don't like intelligent women on social media, especially Twitter," she says. "Misogyny is the riding force. I told my husband that if you had said the very thing that I said (on Khan), you wouldn't have been abused the way I was. It is expected of men to have strong opinions, but when it comes to a woman, people can be down right nasty."

But, has it stopped her from voicing her thoughts? "Definitely, not," she says. "Why should you take sh''t from anybody? My opinions are not uninformed, and I seriously put a lot of thought into what I say. I come from a family of writers, and I write too. I am not just the 'sweet-smiling' person you see on screen. You can't be quiet because you fear receiving a lot of flak. Then, social change will never happen."

That brings us to what keeps Shahane busy these days. "Writing," she smiles. Shahane, who wrote her first screenplay for the Marathi film Rita (adapted from her mother's fiction), is currently in the midst of writing the screenplay for an English-Marathi film, which she intends to direct next year. "I manage to spare time for my writing, after my kids go to school because once they are at home, I am around them," she says. She just wrapped the Marathi show Comedychi Bullet Train, where she was one of the judges. But, for now, she'd like to take it slow. "I am glad that I can articulate the serious part of me, which is related to my mind," she says. "It's nice to be appreciated, and it's okay to be not, either."