Niharika Singh was born in 1982 in New Delhi. Niharika won the title of Miss Earth India at the Femina Miss India beauty pageant in 2005 and began acting in 2006. Niharika made her feature film debut in the 2012 film Miss Lovely. She is currently the director of Future East Film.
Her maternal family is from the Regar caste, and her paternal family is from the Jatav caste. In 2018, she wrote an account of her experiences of sexual harassment and violence and her #MeToo experience as a Dalit woman which was posted by journalist Sandhya Menon on Twitter. In her account, Niharika named actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Mayank Singh Singvi. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a Sheikh, an upper caste Muslim. Mayank Singh Singvi’s caste has not been reported, though Singvis are often Bania Jains, a powerful trading caste.
In Niharika’s account, she outlined various encounters she had with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Siddiqui coerced her and sexually harassed her, through inappropriate and unwanted advances. In 2009, Siddiqui went to Niharika’s house when they were supposed to meet, and grabbed her suddenly without her consent when she opened the door. She wrote that after some coercion, she gave in and began a relationship with him. The relationship lasted a few months. Niharika ended the relationship after uncovering that Siddiqui had been lying to her and multiple other women. Niharika began to receive calls from those other women, sometimes yelling at her. Through one of them, she found out that Siddiqui was married to a woman in Haldwani, whose family had sued him for making demands for dowry. She ended the relationship with him.
In 2013, Siddiqui made advances towards Niharika again while they were working on a film together. Niharika rejected Siddiqui’s advances. In 2014, he inappropriately grabbed her after a promotional event. After Niharika refused again, Siddiqui began to discredit her as an actress in his social circles which included powerful members of the film industry. In spite of her previous critically acclaimed performances, Niharika stopped getting film offers after that
In 2017, Siddiqui wrote a memoir titled ‘An Ordinary Life’ with Rituparna Chatterjee. In the memoir, Siddiqui fabricated stories about his relationship and sexual encounters with Niharika, using her real identity without her consent. News publications began to print and publicise the excerpts which mentioned Niharika, using various images from her life. The reprinted excerpt painted a misleading picture about their interactions, using false and unverified details. The excerpts portrayed Niharika as a seductress,waiting for Siddiqui in her home with candles lit, while jealously sending emails to other women he had been with. Siddiqui published sexual and explicit details of his relationship with Niharika, without her consent. t The accounts weres not fact-checked by the author or the publication house both of which refused to apologise or take responsibility for the injustice
In 2018, when Niharika wrote her statement published by journalist Sandhya Menon, various people victim-blamed Niharika on twitter. People on Twitter claimed that she was lying, blamed her for mentioning her caste in her account where she spoke about her specific experiences as a Dalit woman in Bollywood and highlighted the effect of caste in her experience with sexual harassment. People blamed her for continuing to associate with him, and talking about details of their relationship in public. Actress Kubbra Sait also publicly defended Siddiqui and dismissed Singh’s experience, saying that she was simply ‘airing a relationship gone sour’ and ruining a man’s reputation. There was also an organized troll campaign as multiple accounts posted identical tweets about Singh lying and Siddiqui being a good man.
In her account, Singh also named Mayank Singh Singvi for physically abusing her and using casteist slurs.
The ‘character’ of a Dalit actress already in the public eye was maligned in the public sphere in violation of all journalistic and publication norms without so much as protecting her identity. This reveals the prevalence of victim-blame against Dalit women who are seen as ‘sexually available’ by default. Dalit women, no matter how much public visibility they may enjoy as media professionals, are not afforded the privilege of respectability that protects upper-caste women. In the prevalent culture of harassment in the media industry, powerful upper-caste men punish their victims by discrediting them. Niharika Singh who had made space for herself in an industry dominated by upper-castes, was pushed out of her professional circles by her harasser, Siddiqui who discredited her in his circles. Professional and social discrediting is a form of victim blame that deprives victims of the network and social capital necessary for work.
Siddiqui withdrew his memoir but did not face any legal consequences for his actions. He continues to be a prominent and respected actor in Indian media. Niharika Singh joined Future East Film as one of the directors of the company in 2019, where she introduced one of the first diversity film training programs for Dalit-Bahujan students interested in film. She wrote in her statement, "unless the Savarna feminists do not dismantle the same power structures from which they have benefitted, women in this country will continue to be gaslit, exploited and maligned; their dreams thwarted, voices silenced, bodies assaulted and histories erased."
References:
https://twitter.com/TheRestlessQuil/status/1060850214267871238/photo/2
https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/celebrities/niharika-singh-says-nawazuddin-siddiqui-is-lying-to-sell-his-memoir
https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/bollywood/nawazuddin-siddiqui-an-ordinary-life-memoir-niharika-singh
https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/why-are-nawazuddin-siddiquis-defenders-using-the-exact-same-tweet-to-troll-niharika-singh-1935195.html
https://feminisminindia.com/2019/08/09/conversation-niharika-singh-caste-representation-feminism-bollywood/
https://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip/a-passionate-relationship-with-miss-lovely-co-star-niharika-singh-a-one-night-stand-with-a-jewish-waitress-5-revelations-of-nawazuddin-siddiquis-love-life-from-his-book-an-ordinary-life-a-memoi-1086638/
https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/kubbra-sait-trolled-for-defending-nawazuddin-siddiqui-after-metoo-allegations-says-why-should-i-not-1946623
https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/kubbra-sait-jumps-to-nawazuddin-siddiquis-defense-after-niharika-singh-names-him-in-metoo-account-1945686
https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/niharika-singh-shares-her-metoo-account-neo-liberal-savarna-feminism-isnt-going-to-liberate-anyone-5528681.html
